Stability of Quantitative Evaluation Method of Liver Fibrosis Using Amplitude Distribution Model of Fibrotic Liver

摘要

In the clinical diagnosis of liver fibrosis using ultrasound B-mode images, there are some differences between individual doctors' diagnosis results. Hence, the realization of a quantitative diagnosis method using ultrasonic echo signals is strongly required. The probability density function (PDF) of the echo signal envelope is an important factor for ultrasound tissue characterization (TC). To realize the quantitative diagnosis of the stage of liver fibrosis, we proposed an amplitude distribution model using two Rayleigh distributions. We have been studying the possibility of the quantitative estimation of liver fibrosis by using this model. In this paper, we present the evaluation results of liver fibrosis for clinical data using the amplitude distribution model. Then, we present the stability of the quantitative estimation method of liver fibrosis using the amplitude distribution model by a simulation, and compare the results using the simulation and clinical data. Stability evaluation has enabled the estimation of the progress of liver fibrosis considering statistical dispersion.