title: A pilot approach for quantitative assessment of liver fibrosis using ultrasound: preliminary results in 79 cases.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Ultrasound is noninvasive and useful to evaluate liver disease despite its operator dependency. This pilot study was conducted to quantitatively assess liver fibrosis using ultrasound.
  
  
  METHODS
  Fibrosis extraction ratios (FER) (fiber volume/total volume) of ultrasound and histological images of 8 autopsy specimens were compared. We also compared FER of ultrasound images from clinical patients (n=79) with histological fibrosis stages.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In the autopsy study, FER correlation coefficient between histological images and ultrasound images was 0.992. Regarding clinical patients, there was sufficient evidence to indicate differences in the distributions of FER for each fibrosis stage (Kruskal-Wallis test P<0.0001). With FER cut-off to distinguish > or =F2 from F0 and F1 defined as mean plus standard deviation of F0 and F1, sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value, and likelihood ratio were 62, 75, 78, 57%, and 2.47, respectively. Regarding HCV cohort (n=44), they were 55, 87, 89, 50%, and 4.14, respectively. Areas under receiver operating characteristic curves were 0.78, 0.79, 0.83 and 0.83 for > or =F1, > or =F2, > or =F3 and =F4, respectively. Regarding HCV cohort, they were 0.74, 0.71, 0.79 for > or =F2, > or =3 and =4, respectively.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The FER method has great potential for diagnosing liver fibrosis using ultrasound.
authors.affiliation: Medicine and Clinical Oncology, Graduate School of Medicine, Chiba University, 1-8-1 Inohana, Chuou-ku, Chiba 260-8670, Japan. yama11111@hotmail.com
authors.forename: Hiroyuki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Yamada
authors.forename: Masaaki
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ebara
authors.forename: Tadashi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Yamaguchi
authors.forename: Shinichirou
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Okabe
authors.forename: Hiroyuki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Fukuda
authors.forename: Masaharu
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Yoshikawa
authors.forename: Takashi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kishimoto
authors.forename: Hisahiro
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Matsubara
authors.forename: Hiroyuki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Hachiya
authors.forename: Hiroshi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ishikura
authors.forename: Hiromitsu
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Saisho
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001344:Autopsy; D001706:Biopsy; D018450:Disease Progression; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D066298:In Vitro Techniques; D008103:Liver Cirrhosis / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000473:pathology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010865:Pilot Projects; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D014463:Ultrasonography