A study measuring two quantitative parameters of human liver in vivo was performed to assess the reliability of measurement of the two parameters, and to evaluate their potential for diagnosing and grading diffuse fibrotic liver disease. The parameters measured were attenuation and "mean scatterer spacing," a measure of tissue structure. Components of variance analysis demonstrated that variation in the measured parameters was a function of the subject being examined, with significant variation noted between data acquisition sessions performed the same day. There was no significant additional variation of the measurements from week to week over a one-month period. A good correlation of the parameters with the severity of liver disease indicates that the technique may be useful in the clinical evaluation of diffuse liver disease.
Fresh liver specimens have been ultrasonically imaged in vitro in order to evaluate specimen air content before the acquisition of ultrasonic waveform data for tissue characterization studies. It was found necessary to expose liver slices to vacuum for about 16 h in order to remove enough air to acquire waveform data from air-free regions of interest in these slices. Larger portions of liver, and whole liver, were found to retain large amounts of air even after 16 h of exposure to vacuum.
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