A domestic research team has succeeded in visualizing blood vessels in the liver in 3D using only ultrasound. The team said this lays the groundwork to identify fatty liver earlier and more precisely, and to evaluate treatment response.
Professors Kim Cheol-hong of the departments of electrical engineering, IT convergence engineering, mechanical engineering, and the graduate school of convergence, and An Yong-ju of the department of IT convergence engineering and the graduate school of convergence at Pohang University of Science and Technology POSTECH said on the 13th that their team implemented 3D imaging of intrahepatic vascular structures and blood flow changes. The findings were published in November last year in the international journal Nature Communications.
Based on ultrafast Doppler imaging technology that acquires thousands of ultrasound images per second, the researchers built a "3D multi-parametric ultrasound imaging system" that combines existing ultrasound techniques to jointly interpret vascular and tissue information. Through this, the team said it was able to capture blood flow inside microvessels thinner than a human hair with precision.
Using this system to track the progression of fatty liver over eight weeks, the team succeeded in closely confirming changes in liver tissue and microvessels in 3D images. In particular, they also confirmed that vascular and tissue-related indices returned to normal levels during the recovery phase of fatty liver, suggesting potential use in evaluating treatment effectiveness.
They also said that, based on the high correlation between vascular indices and the degree of hepatic steatosis, they were able to distinguish fatty liver grades with an average accuracy of 92%.
An Yong-ju said, "By detecting and leveraging changes at the microvascular level at an early stage, we presented a new possibility for precision medicine."
References
Nature Communications (2026), DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-65046-x