2017 Issue №3

This article estimates the severity of ultrasonographic changes in the liver at different stages of fibrosis. Sixty-three patients underwent B-mode ultrasound scanning of the spleen and the liver and ARFI-elastography of the liver. Elastography measured the shear wave speed from the 9th, 8th, and 7th intercostal spaces in the anterior axillary line at a depth of 6.0 cm from the skin surface. It was established that patients with fibrosis stages F1 and F2 exhibited from one to four and those with fibrosis F3 and F4 from three to eleven ultrasonographic symptoms. In most cases, as fibrosis progressed, the number of ultrasonographic symptoms increased. Twelve patients with elastographyconfirmed fibrosis stage F2-F4 did not exhibit any apparent ultrasonographic symptoms. Within this group, 42 % of the patients with fibrosis stage F3 and F4 – or 8 % of all the patients – did not exhibit any ultrasonographic symptoms. One or two ultrasonographic symptoms appeared in 12 % of the patients with fibrosis stage F3-F4. It is concluded that even a single ultrasonographic symptom should be interpreted by the ultrasound specialist as a possible sign of fibrosis or cirrhosis.

This article estimates the accuracy of various formulas used to calculate the standard volume of the liver. The authors identify formulas most adequate for a comparison with volumetry results obtained using JT Childs’s easy-touse formula. The study employed the anthropometric data (age, sex, and weight) and the calculations of body height, body surface area (BSA), and liver sizes of 36 healthy volunteers. The volume of the liver was determined using different formulas that take into account either the body surface area or the product of the three dimensions of the liver (the oblique vertical size of the right lobe, the thickness of the right lobe, and the thickness of the left lobe). JT Childs’s formula was chosen as producing the most accurate results and as the most adequate for the use by a practicing ultrasound specialist. The deviation percentage of results obtained using the other formulas was calculated in relation to Childs’s formula. It is concluded that the most accurate formula for calculating the standard volume of the liver is that proposed by A Chouker. The formula can be used for reference purposes when conducting ultrasound volumetry of the liver according to JT Childs.