Diagnostic Performance of Microvascular Imaging for Detecting Histologically Confirmed Liver Fibrosis in Autoimmune...

Background/Objectives: Autoimmune hepatitis (AIH) is a chronic immune-mediated liver disease that may progress to cirrhosis and liver failure if not diagnosed early. Although liver biopsy remains the reference standard for fibrosis assessment, its invasive nature limits routine use. This study aimed to compare the diagnostic performance of ultrasound-based microvascular imaging (MVI), transient elastography (TE), and serum fibrosis indices (APRI and FIB-4) in patients with biopsy-confirmed AIH. Methods: Fifty-five patients with probable or definite AIH according to IAIHG criteria were included in the study. All patients underwent liver biopsy, and fibrosis stage was assessed using the METAVIR system. TE and MVI examinations were performed, and APRI and FIB-4 scores were calculated. Diagnostic performance was evaluated using AUROC, sensitivity, and specificity. Spearman correlation and logistic regression analyses were additionally performed. Results: The mean age of the patients was 49.2 years, and most patients were women. Cirrhosis was present in 58.2% of the cohort. TE demonstrated high diagnostic accuracy, whereas FIB-4 showed moderate performance and APRI demonstrated limited utility. MVI achieved the highest diagnostic performance, with AUROC values of 0.99 for significant fibrosis and 0.97 for cirrhosis. MVI showed the strongest correlation with histological fibrosis stage (r = 0.916, p < 0.001), followed by TE (r = 0.907, p < 0.001). MVI was strongly associated with histologically confirmed cirrhosis (OR 16.7, 95% CI 2.36-118.2, p = 0.004). Conclusions: MVI demonstrates diagnostic performance comparable to TE and may represent a promising adjunctive non-invasive imaging biomarker for fibrosis assessment in AIH. Larger multicenter studies are required for external validation before routine clinical implementation.