Purpose
Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a common cause of chronic liver disease and spreads worldwide with the growing obesity epidemic [1-5]. NAFLD is strongly associated with visceral fat [2] and type 2 diabetes mellitus [1, 6].
It also reported as a late postoperative complication of pancreatoduodenectomy [7]. Whereas liver transplantation, the use of steatotic donor livers for liver transplantation causes poor outcomes [8, 9]. So diagnosing the grade of liver steatosis is important in preoperative evaluation [9].
Radiological modalities such as ultrasonography (US), computed...
Methods and materials
Human phantom
Fig. 1 shows human phantom and its CT images. The diameters of human phantom are 280 and 200 mm in the left-right and anteroposterior respectively. This phantom has imitation tumors and vessels in liver.
Scan conditions
All CT images were acquired using a 160-slice CT scanner.
Scan parameters were tube voltage of 120 kVp, rotation speed of 0.5 s/rot. The reference tube current was determined with automatic exposure control. To acquire low dose images, tube currents were varied from 10 to 200 mA....
Results
The reference tube current was 495 mA.
Table 1 shows each CT value and SD of liver and spleen measured from the reference image. Fig. 2 and Fig. 3 show CT values and SD of liver and spleen measured from low dose images.
There was no large difference in CT values between the reference image and low dose images. Although eAIDR could not reduce SD of low dose CT images, AiCE improved dramatically.
Table 2 shows L/S ratios calculated from the reference image and low...
Conclusion
EASL reported that NAFLD screening should be performed in person at high comprehensive cardiovascular disease risk [14].
Although US is a useful technique for detecting hepatic steatosis, an accuracy of quantification depends on operators. Then a use of US for longitudinal clinical studies is limited [15].
According to Lung Cancer Screening CT Protocols, CTDIvol must be less than 3.0 mGy for a standard sized patient [16]. In this research, we could calculate L/S ratio at 3.1 mGy precisely. Then AiCE could resolve an issue about...
Personal information and conflict of interest
References
[1] Vernon G., Baranova A., Younossi Z. M., Systematic review: the epidemiology and natural history of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and non-alcoholic steatohepatitis in adults. Aliment Pharmacol Ther 2011; 34: 274-285.
[2] Koda M., Kawakami M., Murawaki Y., et al., The impact of visceral fat in nonalcoholic fatty liver disease: cross-sectional and longitudinal studies. J Gastroenterol 2007; 42: 897-903.
[3] Evidence-based Clinical Practice Guidelines for Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease/ Nonalcoholic Steatohepatitis. 2014
[4] Mengjuan X., Chaoyang L., Xianying C., et al., Donor liver steatosis: A...