Validation of Shear Wave Elastography Cutoff Values on the Supersonic Aixplorer for Practical Clinical Use in Liver Fibrosis Staging.
The purpose of this study was to determine the validity of previously established ultrasound shear wave elastography (SWE) cut-off values (≥F2 fibrosis) on an independent cohort of patients with chronic liver disease. In this cross-sectional study, approved by the institutional review board and compliant with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, 338 patients undergoing liver biopsy underwent SWE using an Aixplorer ultrasound machine (SuperSonic Imagine, Aix-en-Provence, France). Median SWE values were calculated from sets of 10 elastograms. A single blinded pathologist evaluated METAVIR fibrosis staging as the gold standard. The study analyzed 277 patients with a mean age of 48 y. On pathologic examination, 212 patients (76.5%) had F0-F1 fibrosis, whereas 65 (23.5%) had ≥F2 fibrosis. Spearman's correlation of fibrosis with SWE was 0.456 (p < 0.001). A cut-off value of 7.29 kPa yielded sensitivity of 95.4% and specificity of 50.5% for the diagnosis of METAVIR stage ≥F2 liver fibrosis in patients with liver disease using the SuperSonic Imagine Aixplorer SWE system.
Department of Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA. Electronic address: dhyani.manish@mgh.harvard.edu.
Manish
M
Dhyani
Department of Radiology, Division of Abdominal Imaging, University of Florida College of Medicine, Gainesville, Florida, USA.
Joseph R
JR
Grajo
Department of Pathology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
Atul K
AK
Bhan
Department of Hepatology, Liver and GI Division, Department of Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
Kathleen
K
Corey
Department of Hepatology, Liver and GI Division, Department of Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
Raymond
R
Chung
Department of Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
Anthony E
AE
Samir
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000465:Algorithms; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D055119:Elastic Modulus; D054459:Elasticity Imaging Techniques / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007090:Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D008103:Liver Cirrhosis / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D033081:Shear Strength; D013314:Stress, Mechanical; D055815:Young Adult
Elastography; Fibrosis; Liver biopsy; Noninvasive imaging; Validated cut-off values