title: Noninvasive assessment of liver fibrosis in thalassaemia major patients by transient elastography (TE) - lack of interference by iron deposition.
abstract: The correlation between liver stiffness, measured by transient elastography, liver fibrosis, using the histological METAVIR score, and iron overload, measured by atomic absorption spectrometry was evaluated in 56 homozygous-beta-thalassaemics. Liver stiffness increased proportionally to liver fibrosis staging (r = 0.70; P > 0.001) independently of liver iron concentration (r = 0.01; P = 0.932). The area under the receiver-operating characteristic curve for prediction of cirrhosis was 0.997 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.925-1.000) with cut-off of 13 kPa with 100% sensitivity (95% CI: 69.0-100.0) and 95% specificity (95% CI: 84.2-99.3). Transient elastography is a reliable non-invasive tool for diagnosing advanced liver fibrosis in homozygous-beta-thalassaemics, regardless of the degree of iron overload.
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento Biomedico di Medicina Interna e Specialistica (Di.Bi.M.I.S.), Unità Complessa di Gastroenterologia ed Epatologia, University of Palermo, Palermo, Italy. vito.dimarco@tin.it
authors.forename: Vito
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Di Marco
authors.forename: Fabrizio
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Bronte
authors.forename: Daniela
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Cabibi
authors.forename: Vincenza
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Calvaruso
authors.forename: Giuseppe
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Alaimo
authors.forename: Zelia
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Borsellino
authors.forename: Francesco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Gagliardotto
authors.forename: Piero Luigi
authors.initials: PL
authors.lastname: Almasio
authors.forename: Marcello
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Capra
authors.forename: Antonio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Craxì
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001706:Biopsy; D002648:Child; D054459:Elasticity Imaging Techniques / Q000379:methods; D004812:Epidemiologic Methods; D005260:Female; D019698:Hepatitis C, Chronic / Q000150:complications; D006801:Humans; D019190:Iron Overload / Q000150:complications*; D008099:Liver / Q000473:pathology; D008103:Liver Cirrhosis / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000209:etiology / Q000473:pathology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D055815:Young Adult; D017086:beta-Thalassemia / Q000150:complications*