Ultrasonography Contribution to Hepatic Steatosis Quantification. Possibilities of Improving this Method through Computerized Analysis of Ultrasonic Image

Hepatic steatosis is a frequently encountered disease in medical practice and it has a great importance due to the potential evolution towards cirrhosis. The clinical and laboratory evaluation has a quite reduced positive predictive value; on the other hand, a series of imagistic techniques may be used for the diagnosis and quantification of these diseases: magnetic resonance imaging, computerized tomography, and not least, ultrasonography. In this paper, our purpose is to evaluate the contribution of the ultrasonography examination to the quantification of the hepatic steatosis as well as the possibility of improving this method