title: Transient elastography: a new noninvasive method for assessment of hepatic fibrosis.
abstract: Chronic hepatitis is accompanied by progressive deposit of hepatic fibrosis, which may lead to cirrhosis. Evaluation of liver fibrosis is, thus, of great clinical interest and, up to now, has been assessed with liver biopsy. This work aims to evaluate a new noninvasive device to quantify liver fibrosis: the shear elasticity probe or fibroscan. This device is based on one-dimensional (1-D) transient elastography, a technique that uses both ultrasound (US) (5 MHz) and low-frequency (50 Hz) elastic waves, whose propagation velocity is directly related to elasticity. The intra- and interoperator reproducibility of the technique, as well as its ability to quantify liver fibrosis, were evaluated in 106 patients with chronic hepatitis C. Liver elasticity measurements were reproducible (standardized coefficient of variation: 3%), operator-independent and well correlated (partial correlation coefficient = 0.71, p < < 0.0001) to fibrosis grade (METAVIR). The areas under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were 0.88 and 0.99 for the diagnosis of patients with significant fibrosis (>/= F2) and with cirrhosis ( = F4), respectively. The Fibroscan is a noninvasive, painless, rapid and objective method to quantify liver fibrosis.
authors.affiliation: Echosens, Paris, France. laurent.sandrin@echosens.com
authors.forename: Laurent
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Sandrin
authors.forename: Bertrand
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Fourquet
authors.forename: Jean-Michel
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Hasquenoph
authors.forename: Sylvain
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Yon
authors.forename: Céline
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Fournier
authors.forename: Frédéric
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Mal
authors.forename: Christos
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Christidis
authors.forename: Marianne
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ziol
authors.forename: Bruno
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Poulet
authors.forename: Farad
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Kazemi
authors.forename: Michel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Beaugrand
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Palau
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D004548:Elasticity; D004812:Epidemiologic Methods; D005260:Female; D019698:Hepatitis C, Chronic / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000503:physiopathology; D006801:Humans; D008099:Liver / Q000503:physiopathology*; D008103:Liver Cirrhosis / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000503:physiopathology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D014463:Ultrasonography