Accuracy of real-time shear wave elastography in staging hepatic fibrosis: a meta-analysis

Chronic liver disease (CLD) is an important cause of morbidity and mortality and can lead to hepatic fibrosis. This study was conducted to evaluate the diagnostic value of real-time shear wave elastography (SWE) in the assessment of hepatic fibrosis.

A systematic search of databases was performed for publications on SWE during the period between 2010 and 2017. The identified studies were analyzed using Meta-disc 1.4 software to integrate and analyze the data.

Eleven studies comprising 1560 patients were included for analysis. The pooled sensitivity, specificity and diagnostic odds ratio were 0.85 (95% CI: 0.82-0.87), 0.79 (95% CI: 0.76-0.82) and 30.81 (95% CI: 16.55-57.34), respectively for patients with a Metavir-score of ≥ F2; 0.87 (95% CI: 0.84-0.91), 0.84 (95% CI: 0.82-0.87), 41.45 (95% CI:18.25-94.45), respectively for patients with ≥ F3; 0.88(95% CI: 0.83-0.91), 0.91 (95% CI: 0.89-0.92), 67.18 (95% CI:30.02-150.31), respectively for patients with ≥ F4. The areas under the receiver operating characteristic curve of the three groups were 0.9147, 0.9223 and 0.9520, respectively.

Our work demonstrates that SWE is highly accurate for detecting and staging hepatic fibrosis.