Shear wave elastography may be sensitive and more precise than transient elastography in predicting significant...

Area of Science:

• Hepatology
• Medical Imaging
• Diagnostic Accuracy

Background:

• Noninvasive elastography methods like transient elastography (TE) and two-dimensional shear wave elastography (SWE) are used for liver fibrosis assessment in chronic hepatitis B (CHB) patients.
• These methods offer an alternative to liver biopsy for routine monitoring.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare the diagnostic efficiency of SWE versus TE in treatment-naive CHB patients.
• To identify independent factors influencing SWE and TE measurements.
• To evaluate their performance in diagnosing significant liver fibrosis.

Main Methods:

• Fifty-four treatment-naive CHB patients underwent liver biopsy, SWE, TE, and serum tests.
• Fibrosis was staged using the Ishak scoring system.
• Multivariate regression and orthogonal partial least squares discriminant analysis were used to analyze influencing factors and compare diagnostic performance.

Main Results:

• Fibrosis stage independently affected SWE values, while total bilirubin and fibrosis stage affected TE values.
• SWE showed a higher correlation with liver fibrosis (r=0.65) than TE (r=0.50).
• SWE demonstrated superior diagnostic performance for significant fibrosis (AUC=0.786) compared to TE (AUC=0.714).

Conclusions:

• SWE measurements are less affected by confounding factors compared to TE.
• SWE is potentially more sensitive and precise than TE for predicting significant fibrosis (F>2) in CHB patients.