title: What are 'true normal' liver stiffness values using FibroScan?: a prospective study in healthy living liver and kidney donors in South Korea.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To identify the normal range of liver stiffness (LS) values by recruiting healthy living liver and kidney donors in South Korea.
  
  
  METHODS
  Liver stiffness measurement (LSM) was performed in 69 healthy living liver and kidney donors who were admitted for transplantation. None of the subjects suffered from diabetes mellitus, hypertension, hepatitis B virus infection, hepatitis C virus infection, heart dysfunction, liver dysfunction or metabolic syndrome.
  
  
  RESULTS
  LSM failure rate was 2.7%. Among 12 liver donors (17.4%) with available liver histology, eight showed normal liver histology and four showed liver steatosis of <5% of the hepatocytes. The mean age of our study population was 38.9+/-11.9 years (35 men and 34 women), with a mean LS value of 4.6+/-0.5 kPa (range 3.3-5.6 kPa). LS values were not significantly different between men (4.6+/-0.6 kPa) and women (4.5+/-0.5 kPa, P=0.636), nor were they significantly different according to age (P=0.851). Using the fifth and 95th percentiles, we determined the normal range of LS values to be 3.9-5.3 kPa.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We identified the normal range of LS values and found that LS values were not significantly influenced by age and gender.
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
authors.forename: Seung Up
authors.initials: SU
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Gi Hong
authors.initials: GH
authors.lastname: Choi
authors.forename: Woong Kyu
authors.initials: WK
authors.lastname: Han
authors.forename: Beom Kyung
authors.initials: BK
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Jun Yong
authors.initials: JY
authors.lastname: Park
authors.forename: Do Young
authors.initials: DY
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Jin Sub
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Choi
authors.forename: Seung Choul
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Eun Hee
authors.initials: EH
authors.lastname: Choi
authors.forename: Sang Hoon
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Ahn
authors.forename: Kwang-Hyub
authors.initials: KH
authors.lastname: Han
authors.forename: Chae Yoon
authors.initials: CY
authors.lastname: Chon
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D054459:Elasticity Imaging Techniques / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008099:Liver / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000502:physiology; D019520:Living Donors; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012016:Reference Values; D056910:Republic of Korea; D012737:Sex Factors; D014019:Tissue Donors; D055815:Young Adult