title: [Clinical study of FibroScan efficiency for diagnosing size of oesophageal varices in liver cirrhosis patients].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate reliability of FibroScan (FS) in diagnosing size of oesophageal varices (OV) in patients with liver cirrhosis.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 260 patients with liver cirrhosis were enrolled in the study. All patients underwent endoscopy to assess OV stage and FS to measure liver stiffness. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were generated to evaluate the diagnostic reliability of FS.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The FS values according to OV stage were 20.9 ± 10.3 kPa for patients without OV, 32.2 ± 13.5 kPa for patients with mild OV, 45.6 ± 18.3 kPa for patients with moderate OV, and 55.1 ± 15.6 kPa for patients with severe OV. Significant differences were found among the groups (P < 0.001) as well as between any two groups (t=6.574, 10.533, 13.247, 4.719, 7.072 and 2.171, P less than 0.05 respectively). ROC curves of FS for the diagnoses of patients with various OV stages showed the following:with vs. without OV, 0.824 (95% CI:77.5% to 87.4%); less than moderate vs. more than moderate OV, 0.849 (95% CI:79.6% to 90.2%); and less than severe vs. severe OV, 0.871 (95% CI:81.1% to 93.0%); the corresponding FS cut-off values were 22.8 kPa, 30.6 kPa, and 34.6 kPa.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Liver stiffness measurement by FibroScan allows prediction of the oesophageal varices stage in patients with liver cirrhosis.
authors.affiliation: Liver Fibrosis Diagnosis and Treatment Center, 302 Hospital of PLA, Beijing 100039, China.
authors.forename: Fan
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Tao
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Yan
authors.forename: Qing
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Shao
authors.forename: Dong
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Ji
authors.forename: Bing
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Zhongbin
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Guofeng
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Chen
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D054459:Elasticity Imaging Techniques; D004932:Esophageal and Gastric Varices / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000209:etiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008103:Liver Cirrhosis / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged