January 6, 2023 : Correlation Between Liver Ultrasound and Liver Function Test Results
© 安岡喜晴 (JoyShine)
Recently I've become skeptical about whether the dull liver edge seen on ultrasound is really indicative of liver dysfunction,
because I have seen many cases so far where such findings were observed, but the blood tests such as AST and ALT were normal.
To investigate this, I searched online and found a paper "Correlation between Liver Ultrasonography with AST and ALT Value in Suspect Hepatitis".
According to Table 3 of this paper, the echo structure had a significant correlation with ALT, the size of the liver with AST,
and the thickening of the portal vein wall with both, but no significant correlation was found with the condition of the liver surface.
However, the paper only classified the liver surface as smooth or irregular and did not separately evaluate the dull liver edge.
So it did not answer my question.
Depending on clinical situations, it is necessary to make a careful judgement especially if there is viral hepatitis, fatty liver, diabetes or obesity.
