[Value of ultrasound and doppler sonography in chronic hepatitis and liver cirrhosis].

Ultrasound is unquestionably of great importance in the diagnosis of liver diseases due to the technical improvements of the last years. Indications for an ultrasound examination are the primary diagnosis of chronic liver disease and the screening for hepatocellular carcinoma. Apart from the diagnosis of portal hypertension in liver cirrhosis a portal vein thrombosis should be detected or excluded in cases of new or refractory ascites. The Budd-Chiari syndrome is another rare but important indication. There is a considerable improvement in the differential diagnosis of focal liver lesions especially due to contrast-enhanced sonography. Using phase-inversion harmonic sonography it is possible to detect tumor vascularity in a very sensitive manner. The accuracy of contrast-enhanced sonography is comparable with helical-CT or MRT, and contrast-enhanced sonography is very useful in the evaluation of response to ablation therapy of hepatocellular carcinoma.