Evaluation of liver fibrosis in chronic hepatitis B patients with 2D shear wave elastography with propagation map guidance: a single-centre study

Background

The aims of this study were to evaluate liver fibrosis with two-dimensional (2D) shear wave elastography (SWE) in patients with chronic hepatitis B (CHB), to compare 2D-SWE with histopathology and to determine the change in liver stiffness values after antiviral therapy.

Material and methods

A total of 253 patients with CHB were included in this prospective study. 2D-SWE with propagation map guidance to measure liver stiffness, fibrosis-4 index (FIB-4) and aspartate aminotransferase to platelet ratio index (APRI) scoring and additional liver biopsy were performed in patients with CHB. Liver stiffness was measured again at 24 and 48 weeks in all patients. The Spearman rank correlation test was used to analyse the correlation between variables, and receiver operating curve analysis was used to evaluate the diagnostic performance in terms of fibrosis.

Results

Liver stiffness measurements made with 2D-SWE demonstrated a significant positive correlation with the fibrosis stage and FIB-4 score (r_s = 0.774 and 0.337, respectively, p < 0.001 for both). The area under the curve value for kPa for the prediction of significant fibrosis was 0.956 (95% CI_s) (0.920–0.991), and the optimal cut-off value was 8.2 kPa (sensitivity: 92.7% and specificity: 78.9%); these values were 0.978 (95% CI_s, 0.945–1.000) and 10.1 kPa (sensitivity: 92.9% and specificity: 96.4%) for the prediction of severe fibrosis. After antiviral treatment, a decrease in liver stiffness values measured by 2D-SWE was detected (mean kPa values at 0 and 48 weeks; 9.24 and 7.36, respectively, p < 0.001).

Conclusion

In conclusion, the measurement of liver stiffness with 2D-SWE has high diagnostic performance in the determination of hepatic fibrosis and can be used to evaluate the response to treatment in patients receiving antiviral therapy.

Shear Wave Liver Elastography with a Propagation Map: Diagnostic Performance and Inter-Observer Correlation for Hepatic Fibrosis in Chronic Hepatitis

The aim of this study was to determine the performance of shear wave elastography (SWE) with a propagation map in the diagnosis of hepatic fibrosis, and to assess its reliability with transient elastography (TE) as the reference standard. Our prospective study included 115 consecutive patients with suspected or alleged chronic hepatitis. Patients underwent SWE by two different operators and TE by sonographers on the same day. The correlation coefficient of the intra-class correlation test between an experienced radiologist and a third-year radiology resident was 0.878. There was a moderate correlation between SWE and TE (r = 0.511) in the diagnosis of hepatic fibrosis. The best cutoff values predicting significant hepatic fibrosis and liver cirrhosis by SWE were >1.78 m/s (area under the receiver operating characteristic curve [AUROC] = 0.777) and >2.24 m/s (AUROC = 0.935), respectively. SWE with a propagation map is a reliable method for predicting hepatic fibrosis regardless of operator experience.