[Factors influencing the success rate and stability of transient elastography for liver fibrosis evaluation].
OBJECTIVE
To investigate the factors influencing the success rate and stability of transient elastography(FibroScan)for assessment of liver fibrosis.


METHODS
Liver stiffness was assessed using transient elastography in totally 637 subjects including healthy subjects, asymptomatic hepatitis B virus (HBV) carriers, patients with chronic hepatitis B and patients with HBV-related cirrhosis. Of these subjects, 302 received 2 examinations and totalling 939 examinations were performed. In each case, one operator performed 2 consecutive series of 10 validated measurements, or 2 operators performed a series of 10 validated measurements. The factors including gender, age, body mass index (BMI) and the state of diseases were analyzed for their association with the success of the examination. Intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) was used to evaluate the reproducibility of the operation.


RESULTS
Failure of the measurement occurred in 14 cases (2.2%), which was not associated with the age of the subjects and the state of diseases. The success rate of measurement decreased as the BMI increased (t=3.112, P=0.002), and was lower in female subjects (t=-2.193, P=0.029). The intra- and inter-operator stability of liver stiffness measurement was satisfactory, with ICC of 0.970 and 0.847, respectively. But for healthy subjects and asymptomatic HBV carriers, the stability was lower, with ICC of 0.736 and 0.639, respectively. Liver stiffness in patients with liver cirrhosis was positively correlated to complications and Child-Turcotte-Pugh (CTP) score.


CONCLUSIONS
Liver stiffness measurement has high stability with FibroScan, and high BMI could lower success rate of the measurement. Liver stiffness as measured by FibroScan allows prediction of the liver function and presence of complications in patients with liver cirrhosis.
Li
Lin-fang
LF
Department of Infectious Diseases, Nanfang Hospital, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou 510515, China. linfangli80@hotmail.com
Dai
Lin
L
Zhang
Qi
Q
Chen
Yong-peng
YP
Feng
Xiao-rong
XR
Guo
Ya-bing
YB
Hou
Jin-lin
JL
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002648:Child; D054459:Elasticity Imaging Techniques / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D019694:Hepatitis B, Chronic / Q000150:complications; D006801:Humans; D008103:Liver Cirrhosis / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000209:etiology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D055815:Young Adult