A pilot approach for quantitative assessment of liver fibrosis using ultrasound: preliminary results in 79 cases

Yamada, Hiroyuki; Ebara, Masaaki; Yamaguchi, Tadashi; Okabe, Shinichirou; Fukuda, Hiroyuki; Yoshikawa, Masaharu; Kishimoto, Takashi; Matsubara, Hisahiro; Hachiya, Hiroyuki; Ishikura, Hiroshi; Saisho, Hiromitsu

doi:10.1016/j.jhep.2005.08.009

« Previous Next »Journal of Hepatology
Volume 44, Issue 1 , Pages 68-75, January 2006

A pilot approach for quantitative assessment of liver fibrosis using ultrasound: preliminary results in 79 cases

Hiroyuki Yamada
- Medicine and Clinical Oncology, Graduate School of Medicine, Chiba University, 1-8-1 Inohana, Chuou-ku, Chiba 260-8670, Japan
- Corresponding author. Tel.: +81 43 226 2083; fax: +81 43 226 2088.
Masaaki Ebara
- Medicine and Clinical Oncology, Graduate School of Medicine, Chiba University, 1-8-1 Inohana, Chuou-ku, Chiba 260-8670, Japan
Tadashi Yamaguchi
- Department of Information and Image Sciences, Faculty of Engineering, Chiba University, 1-33 Yayoi-cho, Inage-ku, Chiba 263-8522, Japan
Shinichirou Okabe
- Medicine and Clinical Oncology, Graduate School of Medicine, Chiba University, 1-8-1 Inohana, Chuou-ku, Chiba 260-8670, Japan
Hiroyuki Fukuda
- Medicine and Clinical Oncology, Graduate School of Medicine, Chiba University, 1-8-1 Inohana, Chuou-ku, Chiba 260-8670, Japan
Masaharu Yoshikawa
- Medicine and Clinical Oncology, Graduate School of Medicine, Chiba University, 1-8-1 Inohana, Chuou-ku, Chiba 260-8670, Japan
Takashi Kishimoto
- Molecular Pathology, Graduate School of Medicine, Chiba University, 1-8-1 Inohana, Chuou-ku, Chiba 260-8670, Japan
Hisahiro Matsubara
- Academic Surgery, Graduate School of Medicine, Chiba University, 1-8-1 Inohana, Chuou-ku, Chiba 260-8670, Japan
Hiroyuki Hachiya
- Research Center for Frontier Medical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Chiba University, 1-33 Yayoi-cho, Inage-ku, Chiba 263-8522, Japan
Hiroshi Ishikura
- Molecular Pathology, Graduate School of Medicine, Chiba University, 1-8-1 Inohana, Chuou-ku, Chiba 260-8670, Japan
Hiromitsu Saisho
- Medicine and Clinical Oncology, Graduate School of Medicine, Chiba University, 1-8-1 Inohana, Chuou-ku, Chiba 260-8670, Japan

Received 26 November 2004; received in revised form 17 August 2005; accepted 18 August 2005. published online 26 September 2005.

Background/Aims

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 ≥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 ≥F1, ≥F2, ≥F3 and =F4, respectively. Regarding HCV cohort, they were 0.74, 0.71, 0.79 for ≥F2, ≥3 and =4, respectively.