title: Diagnostic Accuracy of Acoustic Radiation Force Impulse (ARFI) in Diagnosis of Liver Fibrosis among Egyptian Patients with Chronic HCV Infection.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Acoustic radiation force impulse (ARFI) evaluates liver stiffness non-invasively and was invented recently. This technique can easily and accurately assess the degree of liver fibrosis in clinical practice.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The aim of this study was to detect the diagnostic performance of ARFI elastography in the staging of fibrosis in some Egyptian patients with chronic HCV infection.
  
  
  METHODS
  One hundred ninety patients with chronic HCV infection; 142 men and 48 women were enrolled in the study. They underwent liver biopsy examination for liver fibrosis detection. All demographic; clinical and biochemical data were recoded. ARFI examination was done for all subjects to detect liver stiffness measurement in relation to liver fibrosis detected by pathological examination of liver biopsies.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Medians of liver stiffness measurement by shear wave velocity showed a significant increase as a grade of liver fibrosis increases (p ≤ 0.0001, highly significant). Liver stiffness was directly correlated to age, AST; ALT; INR and liver steatosis (p values were: 0.009; 0.0001; 0.013; 0.006 and 0.04 respectively, significant). On the other hand, liver stiffness was inversely correlated to albumin; prothrombin concentration and platelets (p values were: 0.0001; 0.001, and 0.0001, respectively, significant). We found that shear wave velocity can predict F1; F2; F3 and F4 at cut-off values: 1.22; 1.32; 1.44 and 1.8 respectively.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  ARFI is a diagnostic noninvasive promising technique for liver fibrosis diagnosis among Egyptian patients with chronic HCV infection.
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, National Research Center, Cairo, Egypt.
authors.forename: Yasser A
authors.initials: YA
authors.lastname: Elhosary
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, National Liver Institute, Menoufia, Egypt.
authors.forename: Saleh M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Saleh
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, National Research Center, Cairo, Egypt.
authors.forename: Wafaa M
authors.initials: WM
authors.lastname: Ezzat
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Radiology, Munich University Hospital, Munich, Germany.
authors.forename: Dirk-André
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Clevert
keywords: ARFI; HCV; diagnostic accuracy; liver fibrosis