Prospective Comparison of Liver Stiffness Measurements between Two Point Shear Wave Elastography Methods: Virtual...

Area of Science:

• Medical Imaging
• Hepatology
• Diagnostic Ultrasound

Background:

• Liver stiffness (LS) measurement is crucial for assessing liver fibrosis.
• Point shear wave elastography (pSWE) offers non-invasive methods for LS assessment.
• Virtual Touch Quantification (VTQ) and Elastography Point Quantification (ElastPQ) are two pSWE techniques.

Purpose of the Study:

• To prospectively compare the technical success rate and reliability of VTQ and ElastPQ.
• To correlate liver stiffness measurements obtained by VTQ and ElastPQ.
• To evaluate the intraobserver reproducibility of ElastPQ.

Main Methods:

• Prospective comparison of VTQ and ElastPQ in 85 patients with chronic liver disease.
• Statistical analysis included chi-squared tests, Wilcoxon signed-rank test, Spearman correlation, and Bland-Altman analysis.
• Intraobserver reproducibility of ElastPQ assessed using Bland-Altman limits and intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC).

Main Results:

• Similar technical success rates (98.8% for VTQ vs. 95.3% for ElastPQ) and reliable measurements (95.3% for VTQ vs. 90.6% for ElastPQ).
• No significant difference in mean LS measurements between VTQ (1.71 ± 0.47 m/s) and ElastPQ (1.66 ± 0.41 m/s).
• Strong correlation (r = 0.820) between LS measurements, but a large 95% limit of agreement (27.5% of the mean). High intraobserver reproducibility for ElastPQ (ICC = 0.991).

Conclusions:

• VTQ and ElastPQ demonstrate comparable technical success and reliability for liver stiffness assessment.
• While LS measurements are strongly correlated, the methods are not interchangeable due to a wide limit of agreement.
• ElastPQ exhibits excellent intraobserver reproducibility.