QUANTITATIVE ESTIMATION OF THE AMOUNT OF FIBROSIS IN THE RAT-LIVER USING FRACTAL DIMENSION OF THE SHAPE OF POWER SPECTRUM

This paper describes the quantitative measurement of the amount of fib rosis in the rat liver using the fractal dimension-of the shape of pow er spectrum. The shape of the power spectrum of the scattered echo fro m biotissues is strongly affected by its internal structure. The fract al dimension, which is one of the important parameters of the fractal theory, is useful to express the complexity of shape of figures such a s the power spectrum. From in vitro experiments using rat liver, it wa s found that this method can be used to quantitatively measure the amo unt of fibrosis in the liver, and has the possibility for use in the d iagnosis of human liver cirrhosis.