Ultrasound-based lipid content quantification using double Nakagami distribution model in rat liver steatosis

Abstract

Abstract Quantitative ultrasound (QUS) methods have been widely used for soft tissue characterization. Spatial resolution (i.e. ultrasound frequency) is an important factor for QUS methods. In a previous study, a double Nakagami (DN) distribution model to echo signals from fatty livers using a 15 MHz transducer was used to permit fine-resolution QUS. This study used a filtering approach to quantify steatosis progression using three QUS parameters obtained by fitting a DN distribution model to experimental envelope data. The filter was designed using QUS parameters obtained from three healthy liver. A strong correlation ( r = 0.96, p < 0.001) was found between histologically quantified steatosis percentage and the percentage of the liver having non-healthy liver features. This approach was able to successfully diagnose fatty livers (>20% steatosis percentage) in a dataset of 12 livers ranging from 0% to 90% steatosis.