What are 'true normal' liver stiffness values using FibroScan?: a prospective study in healthy living liver and kidney donors in South Korea.
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.
Kim
Seung Up
SU
Department of Internal Medicine, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
Choi
Gi Hong
GH
Han
Woong Kyu
WK
Kim
Beom Kyung
BK
Park
Jun Yong
JY
Kim
Do Young
DY
Choi
Jin Sub
JS
Yang
Seung Choul
SC
Choi
Eun Hee
EH
Ahn
Sang Hoon
SH
Han
Kwang-Hyub
KH
Chon
Chae Yoon
CY
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