A review of my history of research on ultrasound tissue characterization of chronic liver disease for developing ultrasound clinical technology

Abstract

The ultrasound echo signals from organs contain various physical information, and many studies have been conducted for a long time to provide new diagnostic information using these signals. In this article, an overview of the research and development that the author has conducted for the diagnosis of liver tissue characteristics are described while looking back on the history. In the case of texture analysis, the purpose of the study was initially to extract the features of liver fibrosis, but it was found that it is suitable (rather advantageous) for the quantification of fatty liver. Thus, the analysis algorithm and product specifications were also improved to meet that need. As for fatty liver, the importance of early detection of non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) has increased, so we extended the investigation to quantification of the attenuation coefficient of the liver, and after some trials of prototypes, the real-time quantitative measurement function was realized.