title: Elastography of shear wave speed imaging for the evaluation of liver fibrosis: A meta-analysis.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  A meta-analysis was carried out to assess the accuracies of shear wave speed imaging (SWSI) in predicting significant fibrosis (stages F2-4) and cirrhosis (stage F4).
  
  
  METHODS
  A review was performed of relevant studies published until October 2015. A bivariate binomial model was used to combine the sensitivity, specificity, and the area under the summary receiver operating characteristic (AUC), and 95% confidence intervals were derived to indicate the diagnostic accuracy of imaging modalities.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In total, 10 studies with 2182 patients were included in the analysis. The sensitivity, specificity, and AUC (with 95% confidence intervals) of SWSI were: 0.84 (0.81-0.87), 0.83 (0.77-0.88), and 0.88 (0.85-0.90) for significant fibrosis, respectively; and 0.80 (0.66-0.89), 0.93 (0.88-0.96), and 0.95 (0.92-0.96) for cirrhosis, respectively. When SWSI was compared with well-evaluated transient elastography, the AUCs for the prediction of significant fibrosis were 0.93 and 0.86, respectively. The AUCs for the prediction of cirrhosis were both 0.94.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Shear wave speed imaging is a trustworthy tool for staging hepatic fibrosis, with a high combination of sensitivity and specificity. Compared with transient elastography, SWSI showed better diagnostic performance for the prediction of significant fibrosis.
authors: Institute of Diagnostic and Interventional Ultrasound, Department of Medical Ultrasonics, The First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, China.
authors: Quan-Yuan
authors: QY
authors: Shan
authors: Institute of Diagnostic and Interventional Ultrasound, Department of Medical Ultrasonics, The First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, China.
authors: Bao-Xian
authors: BX
authors: Liu
authors: Institute of Diagnostic and Interventional Ultrasound, Department of Medical Ultrasonics, The First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, China.
authors: Wen-Shuo
authors: WS
authors: Tian
authors: Institute of Diagnostic and Interventional Ultrasound, Department of Medical Ultrasonics, The First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, China.
authors: Wei
authors: W
authors: Wang
authors: Institute of Diagnostic and Interventional Ultrasound, Department of Medical Ultrasonics, The First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, China.
authors: Lu-Yao
authors: LY
authors: Zhou
authors: Institute of Diagnostic and Interventional Ultrasound, Department of Medical Ultrasonics, The First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, China.
authors: Yan
authors: Y
authors: Wang
authors: Institute of Diagnostic and Interventional Ultrasound, Department of Medical Ultrasonics, The First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, China.
authors: Xiao-Yan
authors: XY
authors: Xie
keywords: cirrhosis; liver fibrosis; meta-analysis; shear wave speed imaging