Dear AuntMinnie Member,
If you're an ultrasound practitioner looking for a way to grade the severity of chronic liver disease, you could probably do better than Doppler ultrasound-derived indices. At least, that's the conclusion of U.K. researchers in an article we're featuring this week in our Ultrasound Digital Community.
In our story by staff editor Erik L. Ridley, Dr. David Cosgrove at Hammersmith Hospital presented his group's research aimed at proving whether any of a range of Doppler-derived indices for portal hypertension was useful in predicting cirrhosis in a group of patients with hepatitis-C chronic liver disease.
Their techniques included vessel B-mode and Doppler measurements, using ratios like hepatic artery resistive index, portal vein congestion index, and hepatic artery velocity.
The group was unable to find a correlation between the Doppler indices measurements and increasing liver-disease severity. While spleen length did provide some correlation with stage and grade, even this measure had some shortcomings.
Could new technology like microbubble-based contrast agents improve ultrasound's ability to predict liver disease? Find out by reading the rest of the article, in our Ultrasound Digital Community at ultrasound.auntminnie.com.
