Liver stiffness measurement using acoustic radiation force impulse elastography in hepatitis C virus-infected patients with a sustained virological response.
Acoustic radiation force impulse (ARFI) elastography is a non-invasive method for measuring liver stiffness. However, there are no reports evaluating the value of ARFI elastography for liver fibrosis in chronic hepatitis C patients with a sustained virological response (SVR).



To investigate the diagnostic performance of ARFI elastography for the assessment of liver fibrosis in hepatitis C virus (HCV) infected patients with an SVR.



In this prospective study, we enrolled 336 patients: 121 HCV patients with an SVR (44.6% women) and 215 patients with HCV (47.9% women). ARFI elastography measurements of all patients were performed on the same day of liver biopsy.



The diagnostic accuracies, expressed as areas under the receiver operating characteristic curves for ARFI elastography, in HCV patients with an SVR and those in patients with HCV were 0.818 and 0.875 for the diagnosis of significant fibrosis (≥F2), 0.909 and 0.888 for the diagnosis of severe fibrosis (≥F3), and 0.981 and 0.890 for the diagnosis of liver cirrhosis (F4), respectively. The optimum cut-off values for ARFI elastography were 1.26 m/s for ≥F2, 1.31 m/s for ≥F3 and 1.49 m/s for F4 in HCV patients with an SVR. The liver stiffness values were lower in patients with SVR compared with those in patients with HCV at the same stage of fibrosis. The liver stiffness values were affected by the necroinflammatory activity and the time after SVR.



Acoustic radiation force impulse elastography is an acceptable method for predicting the severity of fibrosis in patients with hepatitis C virus and a sustained viral response.
Department of Gastroenterology, Komaki City Hospital, Komaki, Japan.
Y
Y
Tachi
Department of Gastroenterology, Komaki City Hospital, Komaki, Japan.
T
T
Hirai
Department of Gastroenterology, Komaki City Hospital, Komaki, Japan.
Y
Y
Kojima
Department of Gastroenterology, Komaki City Hospital, Komaki, Japan.
A
A
Miyata
Department of Gastroenterology, Komaki City Hospital, Komaki, Japan.
K
K
Ohara
Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Nagoya University School of Medicine, Nagoya, Japan.
Y
Y
Ishizu
Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Nagoya University School of Medicine, Nagoya, Japan.
T
T
Honda
Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Nagoya University School of Medicine, Nagoya, Japan.
T
T
Kuzuya
Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Nagoya University School of Medicine, Nagoya, Japan.
K
K
Hayashi
Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Nagoya University School of Medicine, Nagoya, Japan.
M
M
Ishigami
Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Nagoya University School of Medicine, Nagoya, Japan.
H
H
Goto
D000162:Acoustics; D000368:Aged; D001706:Biopsy; D054459:Elasticity Imaging Techniques / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D019698:Hepatitis C, Chronic / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000473:pathology; D006801:Humans; D008103:Liver Cirrhosis / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000473:pathology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012372:ROC Curve; D000072230:Sustained Virologic Response