Ultrasound features of liver disease

Over the past half century, liver disease has increased by 400%, with around a quarter of patients diagnosed in hospital dying within 60 days in England and Wales^{1, 2}. Late diagnosis is one of the biggest contributors to a poor prognosis³. While ultrasound practitioners are generally very good at identifying changes associated with liver disease, this article aims to highlight some of the features that can be used for diagnosing liver disease with ultrasound and to introduce underutilised techniques to improve both the sensitivity and specificity when assessing for liver disease.

Echotexture of the liver

Perhaps one of the more difficult areas to assess and convey to the referring clinician is changes to the liver echotexture (Figure 1). While experience can play a large part in this very subjective feature of liver disease, the determination of a heterogeneous echotexture can...