Best Practice: Implementation of Liver US Shear-Wave Elastography in Clinical Practice.

Area of Science:

• Hepatology
• Medical Imaging
• Diagnostic Ultrasound

Background:

• Chronic liver disease significantly impacts global mortality and morbidity.
• Metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease affects approximately one-third of the population.
• Accurate assessment of liver fibrosis is crucial for managing mortality risk.

Purpose of the Study:

• To review and synthesize established best practices for ultrasound shear-wave elastography (SWE).
• To provide actionable recommendations for streamlining the clinical deployment of SWE.
• To highlight common pitfalls in SWE implementation.

Main Methods:

• Review and synthesis of existing society guidelines for SWE.
• Analysis of best practices for patient selection, preparation, and image acquisition.
• Identification of challenges in clinical implementation and reliability characterization.

Main Results:

• Ultrasound SWE is a validated, noninvasive tool for quantifying liver fibrosis.
• Existing guidelines present complexities that hinder practical clinical use.
• Synthesized best practices and recommendations aim to simplify SWE deployment.

Conclusions:

• Standardized application of best practices can enhance the clinical utility of SWE.
• Addressing guideline inconsistencies is key to widespread, reliable implementation of SWE.
• Improved SWE implementation can aid in better risk stratification for chronic liver disease.