Validation of Shear-wave Elastography Cutoff Values on the Supersonic Aixplorer for Practical Clinical Use in Liver Fibrosis Staging

摘要

The purpose of this study was to determine the validity of previously established ultrasound shear-wave elastography (SWE) cutoff values (≥F2 fibrosis) on an independent cohort of patients with chronic liver disease. In this IRB approved, HIPAA compliant cross-sectional study, a total of 338 patients undergoing liver biopsy underwent SWE using an Aixplorer ultrasound machine (Supersonic Imagine). Median SWE values were calculated from sets of 10 elastograms. A single blinded pathologist evaluated METAVIR fibrosis staging as the gold standard. 277 subjects with a mean age of 48 years were analyzed. On pathological examination, 212 (76.5%) subjects had F0–F1 fibrosis, while 65 had ≥F2 fibrosis (23.5%). Spearman’s correlation of fibrosis with SWE was 0.456 (p <0.001). A cutoff value of 7.29 kPa yielded sensitivity of 95.4% and specificity of 50.5% for the diagnosis of METAVIR stage ≥ F2 liver fibrosis in patients with liver disease using the Supersonic Aixplorer SWE system.