[Semi-automatic measurements of hepatic lobes. Application to study of liver volumes. Analysis of 50 computed tomography of normal liver].

Objective: Healthy and pathological hepatic volumetry can be of great interest in Liver pathology and treatment. We studied the hepatic segmentation in order to verify if it is possible to estimate the volume of one lobe, when the volume of the other lobe or the total liver is known.

Patients And Methods: We studied 50 normal hepatic angiotomographies. For each exam and using the Couinaud classification, we measured the total hepatic volume, the right lobe, the left lobe and the caudate lobe volumes. We used a software called "Hepato" developed in order to quantify automatically CTScan images of the liver. We performed a linear regression analysis (least squares method) and calculated the determination coefficient to study the correlation between the different volumes.

Results: The mean total hepatic volume was 1497 cm3. We obtained for the right lobe 1231 cm3, 226 cm3 for left lobe, and 39 cm3 for the caudate lobe. Moreover there was a weak correlation between these volumes.

Conclusion: Exact volume estimation of an hepatic lobe in one patient can not be obtained from the total hepatic volume. However, theses volumes can only be measured from three-dimensional images. Since classical image editing tools are time request, it becomes impossible to utilize them in a clinical routine to get the different volumes of the Liver. Thus, a software dedicated for liver parenchyma recognition is necessary.