Controlled Attenuation Parameter (CAP): A Novel VCTE Guided Ultrasonic Attenuation Measurement for the Evaluation of Hepatic Steatosis: Preliminary Study and Validation in a Cohort of Patients with Chronic Liver Disease from Various Causes
Ultrasound in Medicine and Biology, 10/08/2010
Sasso M et al. – There is a need for noninvasive methods to detect liver steatosis, which can be a factor of liver fibrosis progression. This work aims to evaluate a novel ultrasonic controlled attenuation parameter (CAP) devised to target, specifically, liver steatosis using a sophisticated process based on vibration control transient elastography (VCTE™). CAP was first validated as an estimate of ultrasonic attenuation at 3.5 MHz using Field II simulations and tissue–mimicking phantoms. Performance of the CAP was then appraised on 115 patients, taking the histological grade of steatosis as reference.
