liver and kidney in vivo

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Measurements of ultrasonic backscatter Coefficients in human liver and kidney in vivo Keith A. Wear Food and Drug Administration, Center for Devices and Radiological Health, 12720 Twinbrook Parkway, Rockville, Maryland 20852 Brian S. Garra Georgetown University Medical Center, Washington, DC 20007 Timothy J. Hall Radiology Department, University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City, Kansas 66160 (Received 18 November 1994; accepted for publication 9 May 1995) Ultrasonic backscatter coefficients, in the range of 2.0-4.0 MHz, were measured in normal human livers and kidneys in vivo. In liver, data were acquired and analyzed from 15 normal volunteers and 19 patients with hepatitis. No significant difference between normal and chronic hepatitis was found. The power-law fit to the backscatter coefficient in normal liver as a function of frequency was r/(f )=4.5X 10-5 fl.6 cm-i Str-. This is comparable to that measured by other investigators vitro preparations of hi, man and animaliver and to that measured by two other teams of investigators' in vivo human liven In kidney, data were acquired from 11 normal volunteers. The power-law fit to the backscatter coefficient in normal kidney was r/(f ) =2.3 10 s f2.1 cm Str. This' is in the range of that measured by other investigators in vitro preparations of human and animal kidney. In order to assess the system dependence of in vivo abdominal organ backscatter coefficients, measurements were performed using two different ultrasonic data-acquisition systems. The two systems exhibited close agreement. 1995 Acoustical Society of America. PACS numbers: 43.80.Gx, 43.80.Qf INTRODUCTION The ultrasonic backscatter coefficient is a useful parameter that describes the scattering efficiency, as a function of ultrasonic frequency, of a tissue or material. Many in vitro experiments have been performed to demonstrate its utility for characterization of heart, liver, 2-? and kidney These measurements are often performed in a water tank. Under such conditions, complicating factors such as attenuation and distortion of the ultrasonic beam due to tissues lying between the transducer and re ion of interest are removed. In vitro measurements tend to be more accurate in some sense than in vivo measurements because of the absence of intervening tissues. However, the tissue of interest is often either dead or not in the same state that it would be in vivo and therefore may exhibit altered ultrasonic properties. Moreover, in order to have clinical utility, measurements need to be performed in vivo. There are many reports documenting measurements of the backscatter coefficient in healthy liver but not many for diseased liver. The work of Bamber and Hill, 2 however, indicates that solid tumors in human liver exhibit smaller back- scatter coefficients than normal liver. Zagzebski and co-workers 1ø and O'Donnell and Reilly l have published es- timates of the backscatter coefficient from normal human volunteers in vivo. Measurements on normal liver in vitro have been reported by Nicholas 3 (human), Nassiri and Hill 6 (human), Fei and Shung s (bovine), and Campbell and Waag 7 (calf). There is much evidence to supporthe notion that backscatter coefficients can be useful in characterizing kidney. [nsanand co-workers 12 have performed measurements on dog kidneys in vivo. Their work suggests that at lower frequencies (2.5-5.0 MHz) Bowman's capsules are the dominant scatterers (in the cortex) and at higher frequencies (5.0-10.0 MHz) glomerular arterioles dominate. In addition, the integrated backscatter coefficient is elevated under ischemic conditions. Scatterer size was estimated from the frequency dependence of the backscatter coefficient? Under ischemic conditions, scatterer size was found to exhibit a significant decrease at diagnostic frequencies and a significant increase at higher frequencies. Scatterer size also exhibited a significant decrease at low frequencies during acute obstruction of the kidney under diuresis. Earlier work by these investigators showed an anisotropy in backscatter from dog kidney in vitro. 8 Fei and Shung have published measurements of bovine kidney cortex in vitro. 5 In studies of human kidney in vitro, Turnbull and co-workers 9 have observed elevated backscatter in renal an- giomyolipoma. Garrand co-workers TM measured backscatter coefficients in human kidneys in vivo and reported estimates of scatterer size (obtained from the frequency dependence of the backscatter coefficient) and the integrated backscatter coefficient. Scatterer size was found to be useful in the detection of parenchymal structural change in diffuse renal disease TM and was found to correlate with glomerular diameter. The integrated backscatter coefficient was less useful. In the work described in this paper, backscatter coefficients are estimated from human liver and kidney in vivo. A standard exponential correction is applied to compensate for attenuation of intervening layers of tissue (e.g., skin, muscle, 1852 J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 98 (4), October 1995 0001-4966/95/98(4)/1852/6/$6.00 1995 Acoustical Society of America 1852

and fat). Measurements are reported for liver from normal volunteers and froin patients with chronic hepatitis. Measurements in normal liver are compared with those by Zagzebsld and co-workers (Ref. 10, 1993) and O'Donnell and Reilly (Reft l l, 1985) in vivo and with measurements by others in vitro. Measurements in kidney are compared with in vitro me. asurements by other investigators. In order to investigate the system dependence of in vivo backscatter coefficient measurements, results obtained using two different ultrasonic data-acquisition systems are compared. I. METHOJDS A reference phantom method for measuring ultrasonic backscatter coefficients described by Zagzebski and co- workers m was used in this study. Other methods for quantifying ultrasonic backscatter have been described by Sigelmann and Reid, 15'16 O'Donnell and Miller, 17 Lizzi and co-workers, 8 Campbell and Waag, 9 and Madsen and co-workers. 2ø-22 In addition, numerous applications (some involving modifications which decrease complexity at the cost of decreased generality) of these techniques have been 0.30 fl. s db/cm. published? 3-27 With the reference phantomethod, spectra obtained in tissues are compared with spectra obtained from a phantom with known scattering and attenuation properties. The region of interest (ROI) has the same size, shape, and position for both measurements. With this method, the effects of diffraction and the transducer electromechanical re- sponse on.estimates of backscatter coefficient are removed. Data were compensated for attenuation due to intervening tissues between the transducer and the ROI as described by Zagze5ski and co-workers 1ø and Gabra and co- workers. 14'?-8 Unfortunately, measurements on each individual subject were not available. Therefore, average values were used for tissue thicknesses for skin, fat, and muscle. These average values were obtained by performing measurements from ultrasound B-scan images on 13 normal individuals and 13 patients with hepatitis. The resulting thick- nesses (me, an+standard deviation) for skin (ds), fat (dr.), cient was measured to be 0.115 fl.72 rib/cm. Data from five different ROIs (2 cmx2 cm) were obtained. Backscatter coand muscle'. (d, ) were d = 1.8+_0.3 mm, dr=3.9+_ 1.9 mm, and d, =11.9+_4.0 mm.(normals) and d. =2.0+_0.5 mm, efficient estimates, as functions of frequency, frora the five df=2.7+_1.5 mm, and d, =12.6_+3.9 mm (patients with ROIs were averaged. hepatitis). The attenuation coefficients for skin, fat, and Region of interest sizes in humans were generally about muscle were assumed to be 1.5, 0.46, and 0.51 8 minx10 mm in kidney and 24 mmx30 mm in liver. Data db/cm MHz, 29 respectively. The value used to compensate from liver were acquired using the Diasonics sysl:em. Data for attenumion in the liver was 0.5 db/cm MHz. 1ø'3ø This is were acquired from 15 normal human livers (generally five the value measured by Garra and co-workers in normal vol- or six ROIs per subject) and 17 patients with chronic hepaunteers and in patients with chronic hepatitis. 3ø The value titis (again, generally five or six ROIs per subject). In the used to compensate for attenuation in the kidney was 0.38 kidney, two sets of data (one using the ATL system and the db/cm MHz 1'19 (which corresponds to an average between other using the Diasonics system) were acquired for each values measured parallel and perpendicular to the predominant nephron orientation by Insanand co-workerss). normal human subject. Only one RO1 was acquired per subject, from th? renal cortex/cortico-medulary junction of the The formula used to compute the tissue backscatter coefficient as a function of frequency rlt(f ) was St(f ) rlt(f ):= rip(f ) Sp(f ) Xexp -4ap(f)z+4 ai( f )zi, i=1 where rlp(f ) is the reference phantom backscatter coefficient, and St(.f ) and St,(f ) are the average power spectra measured from tissue and phantom, respectively. In vivo measurements are presumed to involve n tissues (including the tissue of interest) with attenuation coefficients ai(f) (nepers per unit distance)and thicknesses z. The reference phantom attenuation coefficient is ap(f ) and z is the dis- tance from the transducer to the center of the ROI. Two clinical ultrasonic imaging systems were used to acquire the data. One was an ATL Ultramark 8 with a 3.5- MHz annular array transducer. Data acquired with this system were digitized (11 bits) at 12.0 MHz. The second system was a Diasonics DS-20. The center frequency of the circular (diameter= 19 mm) focused transducer for this system was 3.5 MHz. rf signals were digitized (8 bits) at 22.1 Msamples/s. The -6-dB bandwidths for both systems were approximately 1.0 MHz. The reference phantom used in conjunction with the ATL system was a tissue-like slurry containin glass beads and graphite in agar particles suspended in a water-alcohol solution? '32 The attenuation coefficient was measured to be The reference phantom used in conjunction with measurements made with the Diasonics system cousisted of graphite particles embedded in agar. The diameters of these particles were in the range from 5 to 20/.tm and were much smaller than the wavelength of sound used (approximately 430 /.tin). Rayleigh scattering resulted (backscatter coefficient proportional to f4). The attenuation coefficienl: was 0.57 db/cm MHz. The phantom used to test the backscatter coefficient measurement method consisted of glass beads embedded in agar. (This phantom shall be referred to as the " :est phantom" to distinguish it from the reference phantoms.) The diameters of the beads ranged from 180 to 212 /xm. The scatterer number density was 2.0 per cubic min. The speed of sound was measured to be 1556 rigs. The attenuation coeffi- right kidney using the right lobe of the liver as au acoustic window as described previously. TM The bioi3sy results for the 17 patients with chronic hepa- titis were as follows. Seven had chronic persistent hepatitis or mild chronic active hepatitis. Ten were judged to exhibit moderate'. (as opposed to mild) chronic active hepatitis. Patients were also graded with respect to severity of cirrhosis. Six showed no signs of cirrhosis. Seven exhibited mild, early 1853 J. Acoust. Soc. Am., Vol. 98, No. 4, October 1995 Wear, et al: Ultrasonic backscatter of liver and kidney 1853

EXPT... FARAN O 1..6 2.0 2.6 3.0 3.6 4.0 4.5 6.0 Normal... Hepatitis '- ;.8 4.5 5.0 FIG. 1. Measurement of the backscatter coefficient, as a function of frequency, of the test phantom with the ATL data-acquisition system. Also shown (dashed line) is the theoretical backscatter coefficient, computed from the theory of Faran (see Ref. 34). This phantom consisted of glass beads with diameters ranging from 180 to 212/.tm embedded in agar. Error bars denote standard deviations of measurements. cirrhosis. Two patients showed moderate cirrhosis. The remaining two were judged to have severe cirrhosis. "Effective scatterer size" was estimated using the methodeveloped by Insanand co-workers 13'33 which involves computation of the intensity form factor (proportional to the Fourier transform of the correlation function) for the scattering medium. The form-factor data were then leastsquares fitted to a functional form derived from the assumed correlation function. For tissue data, the correlation function was assumed to be Gaussian. For test phantom data, a corre- lation function corresponding to spherical scatterers t3 was used rather than a Gaussian function. From the width of the best-fit correlation function, the effective scatterer size could be estimated. II. RESULTS Figure 1 shows measurements of the backscatter coefficient, as a function of frequency, of the test phantom using the ATL acquisition system. This phantom consisted of glass beads with diameters ranging from 180 to 212/ m embedded in agar. Also shown (dashed line) is the theoretical backscatter coefficient (based on the theory of Faran34). Over the useful band of the transducer (2.0-4.0 MHz), the measurements are in fair agreement with theory. The estimate of effective scatterer size, derived from the ultrasound data, was 167_+1 / m (mean+standar deviation). Explanations for discrepancies between measurements and actual or theoretical values include: (1) There are several simplifying approximations underlying the backscatter coefficient estimation algorithm; ]ø(2) the wavelength of ultrasound used (430 b m) was large relative to the error in scatterer size estimate; (3) there are uncertainties involved in the phantom manufacturing process; (4) the Faran theory is based upon spherical scatterers while the beads in the test phantom were irregularly shaped. Figure 2 shows measurements of average backscatter coefficient from 15 normal human livers in vive and 17 patients FIG. 2. Measurements of average backscatter coefficients from a set of 15 normal human livers in vive and from a set of 17 patients with chronic hepatitis. This data was acquired with the Diasonics data-acquisition system. The two groups show little difference in backscatter coefficient. Error bars denote standard deviations of measurements. with chronic hepatitis. The values from the two groups were very similar. The means and standar deviations of the measurements at 3 MHz were 2.9_1.8x10-4 (normal) and 3.2_+2.0x10-4 cm - Str - (hepatitis). (Note that standard deviation is a function of ROI size and number of ROIs per subject.) The standar deviations for the measurements are far greater than the separation between the two groups. The measured effective scatterer sizes were 245_+32 Fm for normals and 246_+32 k6m for chronic hepatitis. Figure 3 shows measurements of the backscatter coeffi- o [] 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 4.0 4.5 5.0 FIG. 3. Measurements of backscatter coefficient in liver. The solid curve represents the data acquired in this study on human liver in vive. The remaining data points represent measurements made by other researchers. The downward pointing triangles (V) correspond to measurements made by Zagzebski and co-workers on human liver in vive (see Ref. 10). The diamond (0) corresponds to the measurement made by O'Donnell and Reilly in human liver in vive (see Ref. 11). The solid circles (0) are measurements performed by Barnher and Hill (see Ref. 2) on excised human liver. The open circles ( ) are measurements by Nicholas (see Ref. 3) on excised human liver. The open squares ([ ) correspond to measurements by Fei and Shung (see Reft 5) on excised bovine liven The solid squares (I) are measurements by Campbell and Waag (see Ref. 7) on calf liver. The upward pointing (A) triangles are from Nassiri and Hill's (see Ref. 6) measurements on excised human liver. Error bars denote standard deviations of measure- ments. 1854 d. Acoust. Soc. Am., Vol. 98, No. 4, October 1995 Wear, et al.: Ultrasonic backscatter of liver and kidney 1854

... DIA.. v- 1.0.6 2.0 2.5 3,0 3.5 4.0 4.5 5.0 " - ' Wear... Fel... 1Urnbull = In88n8 ' - 1.0.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 4.0 4.5 5.0 FIG. 4. Measurements of average backscatter coefficient from 11 normal FIG. 5. Measurement of backscatter coefficient in kidney. The solid curve human kidneys in vivo. Again the two systems (ATL and Diasonics) exhib- represents the data acquired in this study on human kidney in vivo. The other ited close agreement. The backscatter coefficient showed a gradual increase curves are power-law fits obtained by other researchers for their data. The with frequenc, y in the range of frequencies used. The backscatter coefficient dashed curve corresponds to data acquired by Fei and Shung on excised was approximately l0-4 cm -I Str -1. Error bars denote standardeviations bovine kidney (see Ref. 5). The dotted curve corresponds to neasurement of measurements. by Turnbull et al. on excised human kidney (see Ref. 9). Tb,: chain-dash curves correspond to measurements made by lnsana and co-workers on excise dog kidney both parallel (lower curve) and perpendicular (higher curve) to the predominant nephron orientation (see Reft 8). Error bars decient in liver. The solid curve represents the data acquired in note standard deviations of measurements. this study on human liver in vivo. The remaining data points represent measurements made by other researchers. The measurements performed in this study tend to be somewhat and 2.0X10-4 cm -t Str -t for frequencies between 2.5 and 5.0 MHz [see Figs. 4(c) and 7(c) in Reft 11] and.are a little lower than. most of the others. Only the measurements by higher than that reported by Garr and co-workers TM for nor- Campbell and Waag are lower. (Differences among the mea- real human kidney in vivo (7.8-+4)< 10-5 cm - Sti'-l). surements by Campbell and Waag and the others include the following: Measurements were actually obtained for 165-deg The frequency dependence of the backscatter coefficient was evaluated by performing a power-law fit to the data. The scattering rather than 180 deg. Measurements were obtained resulting fitted function was r/(f ) =2.3x 10-5 from calves rather than other animals. A different data analy- f2.1 cm-l Str-. This frequency dependence sis algorithm was use&) of the power law) is comparable to what other researchers The fi'equency dependences for all measurements are have reported from in vitro experiments. The power-law fits roughly comparable. The power-law fit to the normal data by otheresearchers are 3.1 10-5 f2.3 cm- Str- (Fei and was r/(f ):=4.5X 10-5 fl.6 cm-1 Str- (where f is measured ShungS), 6.6 10-6 ft'7cm- Str- (Turnbull and coin MHz). The frequency dependence (exponent of the power workerso), and 1.9 10-6 f2'2cm- Str- (Insana and law) is comparable to that reported by other investigators co-workerss). The estimates for effective scatterer size were from in vitro experiments. Nicholas reported r/(f ) 232-+29 tim (mean+standardeviation) for ATL measure- =2.7x 10-4f t'2 cm -t Str -1 for excised human liver. 3 Nassiri ments and 211_+57/zm for Diasonics measurements. and Hill reported (f )=3.2x 10-4 fl.4 cm-1 Str- for excised human liver. 6 Fei and Shung reported 8.4x10 - f2 0 cm- 1 ;tr- 1 for excised bovine liverfi Some caution must be exercised in comparing frequency dependences estimated in different studies as the various power-law fits have been performed across different ranges of ultrasonic frequency. Figure 4 shows measurements of average backscatter coefficient from 11 normal human kidneys in vivo. The two systems (ATL and Diasonics) exhibited close agreement. The backscatter coefficient was generally in the range between III. DISCUSSION Backscatter coefficients have been measured in human liver and kidney in vivo. The measurements in liver with hepatitis and in kidney represent the first such measurements in humans in vivo reported. In kidney, comparable results were obtained using two different clinical ultrasonic dataacquisitionsystems and two very different reference phantoms. 10-4 and ]0-3 cm I Str-i and exhibited a gradual increase The measurements in liver presented here w, re somewith frequency in the range of frequencies used. Figure 5 shows estimates of the backscatter coefficient in kidney. The values obtained here are near the high end of the range reported by other investigators. The average backwhat lower than those reported by Zagzebski and co-workers m and O'Donnell and Reilly. tl Much of the discrepancy may be attributable to the high sensitivity of backscatter coefficient estimates to choices of values for attenuascatter coefficient estimates were 3.1x 10-4 +1.5X 10 4 tion coefficients used to compensate for overlyin,g tissues. (ATL) and. 2.3 10-4 1.5 10-4 cm -1 Str - (Diasonics). For example, Zagzebski and co-workers used 1.3 db/ These are :roughly c, omparable to values reported by Insana and co-workers on perfusedog kidney (between 1.0 10 '-4 cmmhz for muscle (0.5 db/cmmhz was used in the present paper) and 0.6 db/cm MHz for fat (0.46 db/cm MHz of 2.1 (exponent 1855 d. Acoust. Soc. Am., Vol. 98, No. 4, October 1995 Wear, et al.: Ultrasonic backscatter of liver and kidney 1855

was used in the present paper). In both studies, the value Estimates for effective scatterer size in kidney reported used for liver was 0.5 db/cm MHz. If the attenuation values here (232+29/am, mean_+ standard deviation for ATL meaof Zagzebski and co-workers ø are utilized, the two sets of measurements are in better agreement. At 2.75 MHz, the values obtained are 1.4-+0.9X10-3 (present paper) and surements and 211_+57/am for Diasonics measurements) are in agreement with values reported by other researchers. Garra and co-workers measured 216_+35 /am from 18 nor- 7.9+2.3X 10-4 cm -1 Str -1(Zagzebski and co-workersre). At mal kidneys in vivo. TM Insana et al. measured 220_+15 /am 4.0 MHz, the values obtained are 4.6_+2.9 10-3 (present (averaged over all angles of incidence) at low frequencies paper) and 3.121.7x10-3 cm-lstr -1 (Zagzebski and (2.5-3.5 MHz) in normal dog kidneys in vitro. 8 Subsequent co-workerslø). experiments by Insana et al. 12 on perfused dog kidney indi- Without direct measurement of muscle attenuation coefficient in vivo on each particular subject, it is not possible to know with absolute certainty which value to use. Ultimately, cate a substantial range of estimated effective scatterer sizes from about 140 to 250/am [Figs. 4(a) and 7(a) in Ref. 12]. Differences between measurements reported here and those one must simply make an educated guess for the value. The value adopted in the present paper was that reported by Car- son and co-workers 27 which corresponded to abdominal ferences between in vivo and in vitro conditions and numermuscle and preperitioneal fascia (0.51 db/cm MHz). Their application was compensation for attenuation in performing measurements on fetuses in vivo. The value used by Zagzebski and co-workers 1ø is taken from measurements of freshly ous other variables. (Insaria and co-workers have delineated many similarities and differences between human and dog kidney anatomy in Ref. 8, Sec. 2.1, p. 615.) As shown in Fig. 4, it was possible to obtain highly excised human gastrocnemius? ø'35 consistent measurements of the backscatter coefficient in It should also be noted that backscatter coefficient esti- mates will have a very sensitive dependence on the choices of value and functional form of attenuation coefficient for compensation in liver. Values ranging from 0.4 to 0.8 db/ cm MHz appear in the literature? In addition, some inves- tigators have reported nonlinear attenuation coefficient estimates in liver that vary as fn where n ranges from 0.8 to 1.5. 36 For a typical round trip path length in liver of 14 cm, a change of 0.1 db/cm MHz in assumed attenuation coefficient would result in a 4.2-dB change in estimated backscatter coefficient at 3.0 MHz! Average backscatter coefficients, as functions of frequency, for normal subjects and patients with chronic hepatitis were roughly comparable. This finding disagrees with the often stated view that the liver in chronic hepatitis has decreased echogenicity and agrees with work showing little difference between the two states. 37'38 With the data- acquisition and analysis methods described in this paper, there would seem to be little hope for differentiating between normal and chronic hepatitis on the basis of backscatter coefficient. Improvements to the methodology, such as (1) direct in vivo measurements of attenuation, (2) accounting for individual variations in thicknesses of skin, fat, and muscle, and (3) a more general approach for measuring backscatter coefficient, may improve the likelihood of successful differ- entiation. A study by Garrand co-workers 28 suggests that chronic hepatitis can be successfully differentiated from normal based on statistical properties of intensity of ultrasonic echoes. The parameters estimated in that study measured (1) the average spacing between regularly spaced scatterers in the liver (perhaps portal triads), (2) specular to diffuse backscat- ter ratio, and (3) variation of specular backscatter intensity. 39 The absolute levels of measurements in normal kidney reported here are near the high end of the range reported in the literature for measurements in humans and animals. The frequency dependence (and therefore, effective scatterer size) was comparable to values computed by other investiga- tors. reported by Insana and co-workers may be attributable to differences between human and dog kidneys as well as dif- vivo with two different clinical data-acquisition systems and two very different reference phantoms. This result demonstrates the robust performance of the reference phantom method for measuring backscatter coefficients in vivo. This result is encouraging since the utility of backscatter coefficient measurements a diagnostic tool is greatly enhanced if different researchers, using different systems, can meaningfully compare measurements. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The authors wish to express thanks to Robert F. Wagner and Michael E Insana for many helpful conversations. 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