The detectability of diffuse liver diseases by quantitative echography was retrospectively investigated using scans of patients with known pathologic findings (n = 103) and of normal subjects (n = 129). The authors determined the best set of quantitative parameters for this task.Quantitative echography was comprised of acoustospectrographic parameters (frequency dependence of attenuation and backscattering) and image texture parameters. The disease processes studied included: acute hepatitis, hepatitis/cirrhosis, alcoholic hepatitis/cirrhosis, primary biliary cirrhosis, and steatosis.Correct differentiation of these diseases ranged from 88\% to 97\%. Correlations between histologic grading and echographic parameters were poor. With only one exception, the differentiation between any two of the diseases could be made in 60\% to 99\% of cases. Different parameters better differentiated abnormal from normal scans than among diseases.The detection of diffuse liver diseases can be based on echographic parameters, related to a diffuse scattering model, whereas the differentiation among diseases needs additional parameters derived from a structural scattering model. Further studies are indicated to assess the prospective potential of the devised methods.