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Liver Stiffness Determined by Transient Elastography Is a Simple and Highly Accurate Predictor for Presence of Liver Cirrhosis in Clinical Routine

  • 0Department of Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Infectious Diseases, Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg, Magdeburg, Germany.
Diseases (basel, Switzerland) +

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March 25, 2024

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March 25, 2024

View abstract on PubMed

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Liver stiffness measurement (LSM) and the FAST score are effective non-invasive tools for detecting liver cirrhosis. These methods show potential for reliably identifying patients with advanced liver disease in clinical practice.

Area Of Science

  • Hepatology
  • Diagnostic Imaging
  • Biomarkers

Background

  • Early detection of advanced chronic liver disease is crucial for preventing complications and identifying patients for hepatocellular carcinoma surveillance.
  • Distinguishing early cirrhosis from lower fibrosis grades non-invasively remains a clinical challenge, often necessitating liver biopsy.

Purpose Of The Study

  • To evaluate the performance of various non-invasive tools in differentiating liver cirrhosis from lower fibrosis grades.
  • To compare the diagnostic accuracy of liver stiffness measurement (LSM), FAST score, FIB-4, NFS, and routine laboratory values.

Main Methods

  • Analysis of data from 116 patients with chronic liver disease undergoing liver biopsy.
  • Collection of routine laboratory values, liver stiffness measurement (LSM) via transient elastography, and histological assessment.
  • Correlation analysis (Spearman) and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis to assess diagnostic performance.

Main Results

  • LSM demonstrated the highest area under the curve (AUC) of 0.9130 for differentiating cirrhosis, followed by the FAST score (0.8842) and FIB-4 (0.8644).
  • Significant correlations were found between histological fibrosis stage and LSM, FAST score, FIB-4, AST, NFS, INR, methacetin breath test, and serum albumin.
  • An LSM threshold of 12.2 kPa showed high sensitivity (95.7%) and specificity (75.3%) for detecting cirrhosis.

Conclusions

  • LSM and FAST score are robust non-invasive measurements for assessing liver fibrosis.
  • LSM and FAST scores show significant potential for reliably detecting liver cirrhosis in routine clinical settings, potentially reducing the need for biopsies.

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