Monday, November 26 | 11:00 a.m.-11:10 a.m. | SSC06-04 | Room N229
Liver surface nodularity -- a quantitative biomarker evident on CT scans -- accurately stages chronic liver disease nearly as well as traditional liver biopsy, according to researchers from Alabama.The conventional method for staging liver diseases involves invasive biopsy. Exploring the potential of a noninvasive option for staging, presenter Dr. Andrew Smith, PhD, and colleagues from the University of Alabama at Birmingham reviewed the CT scans of 193 patients at their institution. The patients were diagnosed with hepatitis C virus infection, which often leads to serious liver fibrosis.
To stage the extent of disease, Smith and colleagues calculated liver surface nodularity scores using computer software to analyze the patients' CT scans. The nodularity scores correlated with the patients' degree of liver fibrosis, they found. This allowed the clinicians to use the scores to stage liver fibrosis by examining the CT scans rather than by performing an invasive liver biopsy.
A comparison of the liver surface nodularity technique and conventional liver biopsy revealed that the noninvasive method was nearly as accurate as biopsy. The accuracy improved even more when the nodularity scoring method was combined with another noninvasive staging method referred to as the fibrosis-4 (FIB-4) index.
The liver surface nodularity score on CT and FIB-4 score are easy to obtain and could help stage liver fibrosis noninvasively and accurately in patients with chronic liver disease, the group noted.
![Axial images from unenhanced calcium score cardiac CT (left) and curved planar reformation images from CT angiography (right) show that higher long-term exposure to air pollution is associated with greater coronary artery calcium and more obstructive coronary artery disease (CAD). Top row: Images in a 68-year-old male patient with higher 10-year mean ambient air pollution exposure (7.9 μg/m3 for particulate matter measuring ≤2.5 μm in diameter [PM2.5] and 17.4 parts per billion [ppb] for NO2) with extensive CAD (coronary artery calcium score [CACS] >1,000 and obstructive CAD [≥70% diameter stenosis]). Bottom row: Images in a 57-year-old female patient with lower 10-year mean ambient air pollution exposure (6.3 μg/m3 for PM2.5 and 4.6 ppb for NO2) with no CAD (CACS = 0 and no obstructive stenosis).](https://img.auntminnie.com/mindful/smg/workspaces/default/uploads/2026/06/hanneman.r6SMLzkezo.png?auto=format%2Ccompress&dpr=2&fit=crop&h=167&q=70&w=250)
