Prediction of hepatocellular carcinoma using age and liver stiffness on transient elastography after hepatitis C virus eradication.

Liver stiffness measurement (LSM) is a useful tool for assessing advanced liver fibrosis, an important risk factor for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) following hepatitis C (HCV) eradication. This study aimed to clarify the non-invasive factors associated with HCC following sustained virological response (SVR) and to identify the low-risk group. 567 patients without history of HCC who achieved SVR at 24 weeks (SVR24) after IFN-free treatment were retrospectively analyzed. The cumulative incidence of HCC and the risk factors were examined using pre-treatment and SVR24 data. The median observation period was 50.2 months. Thirty cases of HCC were observed, and the 4-year cumulative incidence of HCC was 5.9%. In multivariate analysis, significant pre-treatment factors were age ≥ 71 years (hazard ratio [HR]: 3.402) and LSM ≥ 9.2 kPa (HR: 6.328); SVR24 factors were age ≥ 71 years (HR: 2.689) and LSM ≥ 8.4 kPa (HR: 6.642). In cases with age < 71 years and LSM < 8.4 kPa at the time of SVR24, the 4-year cumulative incidence of HCC was as low as 1.1%. Both pre-treatment LSM (≥ 9.2 kPa) and SVR24 LSM (≥ 8.4 kPa) and age (≥ 71 years) are useful in predicting the risk of HCC after SVR with IFN-free treatment. Identification of low-risk individuals may improve the efficiency of follow-up.

Agreement between real-time elastography and delayed enhancement magnetic resonance enterography on quantifying bowel wall fibrosis in Crohn's disease.

BACKGROUND: the assessment of fibrosis in Crohn's disease (CD) bowel lesions helps to guide therapeutic decisions. Real-time elastography (RTE) and delayed-enhancement magnetic resonance enterography (DE-MRE) have demonstrated good accuracy in quantifying CD-related ileal fibrosis as compared with histological examination. To date no study has compared DE-MRE and RTE. AIMS: we aimed to evaluate the agreement between RTE and DE-MRE on quantifying CD-related ileal fibrosis. METHODS: consecutive patients with ileal or ileocolonic CD underwent RTE and DE-MRE. Ileal fibrosis was quantified by calculating the strain ratio (SR) at RTE and the 70s-7 min percentage of enhancement gain (%EG) of both mucosa and submucosa at DE-MRE. A SR ≥2 was applied to define severe fibrosis. Clinically relevant outcomes occurring at follow-up were recorded. RESULTS: 40 CD patients were enrolled. A significant linear correlation was observed between SR and submucosal %EG (r = 0.594, p < 0.001). Patients with severe fibrosis (SR ≥2) had significantly higher submucosal %EG values than patients with low/moderate fibrosis (median values 26.4% vs. 9.5%, p < 0.001). During a median 43.8-month follow-up relevant disease outcomes occurred more frequently in the severe-fibrosis group (75% vs. 36%, HR 5.4, 95% CI 1.2-24.6, p = 0.029). CONCLUSIONS: the study demonstrates an excellent agreement between RTE and DE-MRE in assessing ileal fibrosis in CD.

Cystic fibrosis-related liver disease: Clinical presentations, diagnostic and monitoring approaches in the era of CFTR modulator therapies.

Cystic fibrosis (CF) is the most common autosomal recessive disease in the Caucasian population. Cystic fibrosis-related liver disease (CFLD) is defined as the pathogenesis related to the underlying CFTR defect in biliary epithelial cells. CFLD needs to be distinguished from other liver manifestations that may not have any pathological significance. The clinical/histological presentation and severity of CFLD vary. The main histological presentation of CFLD is focal biliary fibrosis, which is usually asymptomatic. Portal hypertension develops in a minority of cases (about 10%) and may require specific management including liver transplantation for end-stage liver disease. Portal hypertension is usually the result of the progression of focal biliary fibrosis to multilobular cirrhosis during childhood. Nevertheless, non-cirrhotic portal hypertension as a result of porto-sinusoidal vascular disease is now identified increasingly more frequently, mainly in young adults. To evaluate the effect of new CFTR modulator therapies on the liver, the spectrum of hepatobiliary involvement must first be precisely classified. This paper discusses the phenotypic features of CFLD, its underlying physiopathology and relevant diagnostic and follow-up approaches, with a special focus on imaging.

Meta-Analysis of Contrast Enhanced Ultrasound in Judging Benign and Malignant Thyroid Tumors.

In recent years, the incidence of thyroid cancer (TC) patients has gradually increased, and it ranks first among all endocrine tumors. TC has no obvious characteristics at the initial stage of onset. Thyroid tumors (TT) have formed when they are discovered, and they are easy to see when they are diagnosed. The disease is confused, so it is necessary to rely on imaging methods for tumor diagnosis. Contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS), as the most commonly used imaging method in current clinical testing, is simple, safe, highly sensitive, can accurately display tumor conditions, and has high clinical value in the judgment of TC tumors. This article uses meta-analysis to select 63 published studies on CEUS to determine benign and malignant (BAM) TT to analyze and explore its clinical application value. This article understands the analysis of BAM TT and its diagnostic methods, clarifies the diagnostic efficiency of CEUS for TT, imaging methods, and imaging characteristics, and uses statistical analysis to analyze its heterogeneity. In this paper, the meta-analysis of CEUS in judging BAM TT is mainly based on references. The sensitivity, specificity, and difference of CEUS in diagnosing BAM TT are analyzed. Real-time elastography (RTE) is the comparison experiment object, and CEUS is used to compare the diagnostic efficiency, pathological results, and diagnostic efficiency of thyroid nodules in CEUS mode. The results of the study show that the nodule with higher diagnostic sensitivity is the echo feature, with a sensitivity of 97.73%, followed by the halo feature, with a sensitivity of 86.36%. In terms of diagnostic specificity, the boundary feature is the most specific. The specificity is 89.47%. In the judgment of BAM tumor nodules, the most obvious difference is the echo feature, which is as high as 14.09, followed by the acoustic halo feature, and the difference is 10.65.

Role of "Stiff Rim" sign obtained by shear wave elastography in diagnosis and guiding therapy of breast cancer.

Background: Because the halo around the tumor in shear wave elastography (SWE) is defined as the "stiff rim" sign, the diagnosis of breast lesions with the stiff rim sign is popular. However, only a few studies have described the stiff rim sign quantitatively. Objective: This study aimed to investigate the usefulness of the stiff rim sign in the diagnosis and tumor, node, metastasis stage of breast cancer. Methods: Two hundred and ten breast lesions were analyzed retrospectively. The maximum, mean, minimum Young's modulus (YM), and the YM standard deviation in the lesion, the peritumoral stiffness (shell), and the region containing lesion and shell were obtained. The suspicious SWE feature with the best diagnostic performance was chosen to downgrade or upgrade the Breast Imaging Reporting and Data System (BI-RADS) classification. The coincidence rates of SWE and B-mode ultrasound in T staging and their positive predictive value (PPV) for T staging were compared. Results: The presence of "stiff rim" sign was selected to upgrade or downgrade the BI-RADS classification because of its best performance. In pathological benign lesions, 18.9% (25 of 132) of lesions should undergo biopsy if BI-RADS combined with the stiff rim sign were referred while it was 57.6% (76 of 132) if BI-RADS alone was referred. The coincidence rate of T2 staging evaluated by SWE was significantly higher than B-mode ultrasound (about 30% increase, P < 0.001). The PPVs of SWE for T1 and T2 staging were higher than B-mode ultrasound (P < 0.05). Conclusions: BI-RADS combined with "stiff rim" sign is expected to improve the diagnostic performance of breast lesions to avoid unnecessary biopsy. The maximum diameter of the lesion measured in SWE is more accurate than B-mode ultrasound in the estimation of T staging, which is beneficial to the treatment and prognosis of breast cancer.

Value of shear wave elastography combined with the Toronto clinical scoring system in diagnosis of diabetic peripheral neuropathy.

ABSTRACT: To evaluate the diagnostic values of shear wave elastography (SWE) alone and in combination with the Toronto clinical scoring system (TCSS) on diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN) in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM).The study included 41 DPN patients, 42 non-DPN patients, and 21 healthy volunteers. Conventional ultrasonography and SWE were performed on the 2 sides of the tibial nerves, and cross-sectional area (CSA) and nerve stiffness were measured. TCSS was applied to all patients. A receiver operating characteristic curve analysis was performed.The stiffness of the tibial nerve, as measured as mean, minimum or maximum elasticity, was significantly higher in patients in the DPN group than the other groups (P < .05). The tibial nerve of subjects in the non-DPN group was significantly stiffer compared to the control group (P < .05). There was no significant difference of the tibial nerve CSA among the 3 groups (P > .05). Mean elasticity of the tibial nerve with a cutoff of 71.3 kPa was the most sensitive (68.3%) and had a higher area under the curve (0.712; 0.602-0.806) among the 3 shear elasticity indices for diagnosing DPN when used alone. When combining SWE with TCSS in diagnosing DPN, the most effective parameter was the EMax, which yielded a sensitivity of 100.00% and a specificity of 95.24%.SWE is a better diagnostic tool for DPN than the conventional ultrasonic parameter CSA, and a higher diagnostic value is attained when combining SWE with TCSS.

Coarctation of aorta is associated with left ventricular stiffness, left atrial dysfunction and pulmonary hypertension.

BACKGROUND: Brachial systolic blood pressure (BP) is the most commonly used metric for monitoring hypertension. However, recent studies suggest that brachial systolic BP underestimates left ventricle (LV) systolic load in patients with coarctation of aorta (COA). Since brachial systolic BP is used as a surrogate of arterial afterload in clinical practice, it is important to determine how well it correlates with LV remodeling and stiffness in patients with COA as compared to patients with idiopathic hypertension. METHODS: This is cross-sectional study of COA patients with hypertension (COA group) and adults with idiopathic hypertension (control group). Both groups were matched 1:1 based on age, sex, BMI and systolic BP. We hypothesized that the COA group will have higher LV systolic and diastolic stiffness, and more advanced left atrial remodeling and pulmonary hypertension. We assessed LV systolic stiffness using end-systolic elastance, and diastolic stiffness using LV stiffness constant and chamber capacitance (LV-end-diastolic volume at an end-diastolic pressure of 20mm Hg) RESULTS: There were 112 patients in each group. Although both groups had similar systolic BP, the COA group had a higher end-systolic elastance (2.37 ± 0.74 vs 2.11 ± 0.54 mm Hg/mL, P= .008), higher LV stiffness constant (6.91 ± 0.81 vs 5.93 ± 0.79, P= .006) and lower LV-end-diastolic volume at an end-diastolic pressure of 20mm Hg (58 ± 9 vs 67 ± 11 mL/m2, P< .001). Additionally, the COA group had more advanced left atrial remodeling and higher pulmonary artery pressures which is corroborating evidence of high LV filling pressure. CONCLUSIONS: COA patients have more LV stiffness and abnormal hemodynamics compared to non-COA patients with similar systolic BP, suggesting that systolic BP may underestimate LV systolic load in this population. Further studies are required to determine whether the observed LV stiffness and dysfunction translates to more cardiovascular events during follow-up, and whether adopting a stricter systolic BP target in clinical practice or changing threshold for COA intervention will lead to less LV stiffness and better clinical outcomes.

Psoriasis and Liver Damage in HIV-Infected Patients.

Background/objectives: Psoriasis is the most frequent skin disease in HIV-infected patients. Nonalcohol fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is more prevalent in patients with psoriasis. We report the prevalence of psoriasis and NAFLD and investigate risk factors of liver damage in HIV-infected patients with psoriasis. Methods: We performed a retrospective observational study. Steatosis was defined as indicative abdominal ultrasound findings, CAP (controlled attenuated parameter by transient elastography) > 238 dB/m, and/or triglyceride and glucose index (TyG) > 8.38. Significant (fibrosis ≥ 2) and advanced liver fibrosis (fibrosis ≤ F3) were studied by transient elastography (TE) and/or FIB-4 using standard cutoff points. FIB-4 (Fibrosis 4 score) results were adjusted for hepatitis C (HCV)-coinfected patients. Results: We identified 80 patients with psoriasis (prevalence, 1.5%; 95% CI, 1.1-1.8). Psoriasis was severe (PASI > 10 and/or psoriatic arthritis) in 27.5% of cases. The prevalence of steatosis was 72.5% (95% CI, 65-85). Severe psoriasis was an independent risk factor for steatosis (OR, 12; 95% CI, 1.2-120; p = 0.03). Significant liver fibrosis (p < 0.05) was associated with HCV coinfection (OR 3.4; 95% CI, 1.1-10.6), total CD4 (OR 0.99; 95% CI, 0.99-1), and time of efavirenz exposure (OR 1.2; 95% CI, 1.0-1.3). Conclusions: The prevalence of psoriasis in HIV-infected patients was similar to that of the general population. Steatosis is highly prevalent, and severe psoriasis is an independent risk factor for steatosis in HIV-infected patients.

Using vibration controlled transient elastography and FIB-4 to assess liver cirrhosis in a hepatitis C virus infected population.

ABSTRACT: We assessed the performance characteristics of the Fibrosis-4 (FIB-4) score in a veteran population with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection and used vibration controlled transient elastography (VCTE) as the gold standard.All VCTE studies were performed by a single operator on United States veterans with HCV infection presenting for care at the Atlanta VA Medical Center (AVAMC) over a 2 year period. VCTE liver stiffness measurements (LSM) were categorized as cirrhotic if LSM was >12.5 kPa and non-cirrhotic if LSM was ≤12.5 kPa. FIB-4 scores ≤3.25 were considered non-cirrhotic and scores >3.25 were considered cirrhotic. Sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), and negative predictive value (NPV) were calculated for the FIB-4 score. A second analysis was done which identified and excluded indeterminate FIB-4 scores, defined as any value between 1.45 and 3.25.When FIB-4 was used to screen for liver cirrhosis using VCTE as the gold standard, sensitivity was 42%, specificity was 88%, PPV was 62%, and NPV was 76%. When indeterminate FIB-4 scores were excluded from the analysis, sensitivity was 95%, specificity was 61%, PPV was 62%, and NPV was 94.4%. In a veteran population with chronic HCV infection, we found the sensitivity of the FIB-4 score to be unacceptably low for ruling out liver cirrhosis when using a binary cutoff at 3.25. Using a second staging method like VCTE may be an effective way to screen for liver cirrhosis in persons with chronic HCV, especially when the FIB-4 score is in the indeterminate range.

Prognostic performance of 7 biomarkers compared to liver biopsy in early alcohol-related liver disease.

BACKGROUND & AIMS: Alcohol is the most common cause of liver-related mortality and morbidity. We therefore aimed to assess and compare the prognostic performance of elastography and blood-based markers to predict time to the first liver-related event, severe infection, and all-cause mortality in patients with a history of excess drinking. METHODS: We performed a prospective cohort study in patients with early, compensated alcohol-related liver disease. At baseline, we obtained a liver biopsy, transient elastography (TE), 2-dimensional shear-wave elastography (2D-SWE), enhanced liver fibrosis test (ELF), FibroTest, fibrosis-4 index (FIB-4), non-alcoholic fatty liver fibrosis score (NFS) and Forns index. We compared C-statistics and time-dependent AUC for prognostication. We used validated cut-off points to create 3 risk groups for each test: low, intermediate and high risk. RESULTS: We followed 462 patients for a median of 49 months (IQR 31-70). Median age was 57 years, 76% were males, 20% had advanced fibrosis. Eighty-four patients (18%) developed a liver-related event after a median of 18 months (7-34). TE had the highest prognostic accuracy, with a C-statistic of 0.876, and time-dependent AUC at 5 years of 0.889, comparable to 2D-SWE and ELF. TE, ELF and 2D-SWE outperformed FibroTest, FIB4, NFS, Forns index and biopsy-verified fibrosis stage. Compared to patients with TE <10 kPa, the hazard ratios for liver-related events for TE 10-15 kPa were 8.1 (3.2-20.4), and 27.9 (13.8-56.8) for TE >15 kPa. Periods of excessive drinking during follow-up increased the risk of progressing to liver-related events, except for patients in the low-risk groups. CONCLUSION: TE, ELF and 2D-SWE are highly accurate prognostic markers in patients with alcohol-related liver disease. Easy-to-use cut-offs can distinguish between substantially different risk profiles. LAY SUMMARY: Alcohol is the leading cause of death and illness due to liver disease. In this study, we assessed the ability of biomarkers to predict the risk of developing symptomatic liver disease in patients with early stages of alcohol-related liver disease. We found that several tests accurately predicted the risk of liver-related events such as ascites, esophageal varices and hepatic encephalopathy during an average follow-up of 4.1 years. Liver stiffness measurements by ultrasound elastography and the enhanced liver fibrosis test performed best. By using them, we were able to stratify patients into 3 groups with significantly different risks.

Diagnostic accuracy of elastography and magnetic resonance imaging in patients with NAFLD: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Vibration-controlled transient elastography (VCTE), point shear wave elastography (pSWE), 2-dimensional shear wave elastography (2DSWE), magnetic resonance elastography (MRE), and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) have been proposed as non-invasive tests for patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). This study evaluated their diagnostic accuracy for liver fibrosis and non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). METHODS: PubMED/MEDLINE, EMBASE and the Cochrane Library were searched for studies examining the diagnostic accuracy of these index tests, against histology as the reference standard, in adult patients with NAFLD. Two authors independently screened and assessed methodological quality of studies and extracted data. Summary estimates of sensitivity, specificity and area under the curve (sAUC) were calculated for fibrosis stages and NASH, using a random effects bivariate logit-normal model. RESULTS: We included 82 studies (14,609 patients). Meta-analysis for diagnosing fibrosis stages was possible in 53 VCTE, 11 MRE, 12 pSWE and 4 2DSWE studies, and for diagnosing NASH in 4 MRE studies. sAUC for diagnosis of significant fibrosis were: 0.83 for VCTE, 0.91 for MRE, 0.86 for pSWE and 0.75 for 2DSWE. sAUC for diagnosis of advanced fibrosis were: 0.85 for VCTE, 0.92 for MRE, 0.89 for pSWE and 0.72 for 2DSWE. sAUC for diagnosis of cirrhosis were: 0.89 for VCTE, 0.90 for MRE, 0.90 for pSWE and 0.88 for 2DSWE. MRE had sAUC of 0.83 for diagnosis of NASH. Three (4%) studies reported intention-to-diagnose analyses and 15 (18%) studies reported diagnostic accuracy against pre-specified cut-offs. CONCLUSIONS: When elastography index tests are acquired successfully, they have acceptable diagnostic accuracy for advanced fibrosis and cirrhosis. The potential clinical impact of these index tests cannot be assessed fully as intention-to-diagnose analyses and validation of pre-specified thresholds are lacking. LAY SUMMARY: Non-invasive tests that measure liver stiffness or use magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) have been suggested as alternatives to liver biopsy for assessing the severity of liver scarring (fibrosis) and fatty inflammation (steatohepatitis) in patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). In this study, we summarise the results of previously published studies on how accurately these non-invasive tests can diagnose liver fibrosis and inflammation, using liver biopsy as the reference. We found that some techniques that measure liver stiffness had a good performance for the diagnosis of severe liver scarring.

Fusing electrical and elasticity imaging.

Electrical and elasticity imaging are promising modalities for a suite of different applications, including medical tomography, non-destructive testing and structural health monitoring. These emerging modalities are capable of providing remote, non-invasive and low-cost opportunities. Unfortunately, both modalities are severely ill-posed nonlinear inverse problems, susceptive to noise and modelling errors. Nevertheless, the ability to incorporate complimentary datasets obtained simultaneously offers mutually beneficial information. By fusing electrical and elastic modalities as a joint problem, we are afforded the possibility to stabilize the inversion process via the utilization of auxiliary information from both modalities as well as joint structural operators. In this study, we will discuss a possible approach to combine electrical and elasticity imaging in a joint reconstruction problem giving rise to novel multi-modality applications for use in both medical and structural engineering. This article is part of the theme issue 'Synergistic tomographic image reconstruction: part 1'.

Shearwave elastography of the Sartorius muscle.

ABSTRACT: The aim of the study was to study sonoelastographic features of thesartorius muscle, and its relation to the demographic factors.The study included 70 muscles in 35 healthy subjects. High-resolution ultrasound and shearwave elastography were used to evaluate the sartorius muscle. Stiffness values were measured.The mean shear elastic modulus of the sartorius muscle was 21.96 ±â€Š5.1 kPa. Demographic factors showed no relation to the elastic modulus of the left sartorius muscle. Positive statistical correlation was noted between the elastic modulus of the right sartorius muscle, weight, and body mass index.Our results could be a reference point for evaluating sartorius muscle stiffness in future research considering different pathologies.

Shear wave elastography of the tibial nerve in healthy subjects.

ABSTRACT: The purpose of this study is to investigate sonoelastographic features of the tibial nerve.The study included 72 tibial nerves in 36 healthy subjects. High resolution ultrasound and Shear wave elastography were used to evaluate the tibial nerve. Cross sectional area and stiffness were measured.The mean cross sectional area of the tibial nerve was 13.4 mm2. The mean shear elastic modulus of the tibial nerve in the short axis was 23.3 kPa. The mean shear elastic modulus of the tibial nerve in long axis was 26.1 kPa. The tibial nerve elastic modulus also showed no correlation with cross sectional area neither in the long axis nor short axis. Age, height, weight, and body mass index showed no correlation with tibial nerve elastic modulus in short or long axes.The elastic modulus of the tibial nerve has been determined in healthy subjects and can serve as a reference for future assessment of polyneuropathy.

Influence of Bias in the Assessment of Patellar Tendon Stiffness: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.

The aim of the present study was to provide a systematic review and meta-analysis of the main biases in practical applications of the different types of elastography in assessment of the stiffness of healthy patellar tendons. A literature search on four databases (Scopus, Web of Science, Pubmed and SportDiscus) was conducted on March 25, 2020. After analysis of 1,052 resultant articles, studies were included if they met two inclusion criteria: (1) studies were observational or randomized controlled trials; (2) studies included outcomes of patellar tendon stiffness. Twenty-one studies met the inclusion criteria and were included in this meta-analysis. Four meta-analyses were performed with respect to assessment procedure and participant characteristics. This meta-analysis found a low effect of examined portion of patellar tendon (standardized mean difference [SMD] = 0.27, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.01-0.54, n = 379, Z = 2.01, p = 0.04) and a high effect of knee flexion angle during assessment (SMD = -2.12; 95% CI: -2.67 to -1.58, n = 97, Z = 7.68, p < 0.01) in stiffness outcomes. The risk of bias was generally low, but the heterogenicity of the results downgraded the level of evidence. There is evidence in the elastography assessment of patellar tendon suggesting that the knee position and patellar tendon portion evaluated influence stiffness outcomes for patellar tendon in healthy volunteers.

Ultrasonic Elastography Combined with Human Papilloma Virus Detection Based on Intelligent Denoising Algorithm in Diagnosis of Cervical Intraepithelial Neoplasia.

The aim of this research was to study the application of ultrasonic elastography combined with human papilloma virus (HPV) detection based on bilateral filter intelligent denoising algorithm in the diagnosis of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) and provide a theoretical basis for clinical diagnosis and treatment of CIN. In this study, 100 patients with cervical lesions were selected as research objects and randomly divided into control group and experimental group, with 50 cases in each group. Patients in control group and experimental group were diagnosed by ultrasonic elastography combined with HPV detection. The experimental group used the optimized image map of bilateral filter intelligent denoising algorithm for denoising and optimization, while the control group did not use optimization, and the differences between them were analyzed and compared. The diagnostic effects of the two groups were compared. As a result, the three accuracy rates of the experimental group were 95%, 95%, and 98%, respectively; the three sensitivity rates were 96%, 92%, and 94%, respectively; and the three specificity rates were 99%, 97%, and 98%, respectively. In the control group, the three accuracy rates were 84%, 86%, and 84%, respectively; the three sensitivity rates were 88%, 84%, and 86%, respectively; and the three specificity rates were 81%, 83%, and 88%, respectively. The accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity of experiment group were significantly higher than those of control group, and the difference was statistically significant (P < 0.05). In summary, the bilateral filter intelligent denoising algorithm has a good denoising effect on the ultrasonic elastography. The ultrasonic image processed by the algorithm combined with HPV detection has a better diagnosis of CIN.

The utility of two-dimensional shear wave elastography and texture analysis for monitoring liver fibrosis in rat model.

BACKGROUND: Liver fibrosis is a common pathological change caused by a variety of etiologies. Early diagnosis and timely treatment can reverse or delay disease progression and improve the prognosis. This study aimed to assess the potential utility of two-dimensional shear wave elastography and texture analysis in dynamic monitoring of the progression of liver fibrosis in rat model. METHODS: Twenty rats were divided into control group (n = 4) and experimental groups (n = 4 per group) with carbon tetrachloride administration for 2, 3, 4, and 6 weeks. The liver stiffness measurement was performed by two-dimensional shear wave elastography, while the optimal texture analysis subsets to distinguish fibrosis stage were generated by MaZda. The results of elastography and texture analysis were validated through comparing with histopathology. RESULTS: Liver stiffness measurement was 6.09 ± 0.31 kPa in the control group and 7.10 ± 0.41 kPa, 7.80 ± 0.93 kPa, 8.64 ± 0.93 kPa, 9.91 ± 1.13 kPa in the carbon tetrachloride induced groups for 2, 3, 4, 6 weeks, respectively (P < 0.05). By texture analysis, histogram and co-occurrence matrix had the most frequency texture parameters in staging liver fibrosis. Receiver operating characteristic curve of liver elasticity showed that the sensitivity and specificity were 95.0% and 92.5% to discriminate liver fibrosis and non-fibrosis, respectively. In texture analysis, five optimal parameters were selected to classify liver fibrosis and non-fibrosis. CONCLUSIONS: Two-dimensional shear wave elastography showed potential applications for noninvasive monitoring of the progression of hepatic fibrosis, even in mild fibrosis. Texture analysis can further extract and quantify the texture features in ultrasonic image, which was a supplementary to further visual information and acquired high diagnostic accuracy for severe fibrosis.

Refining the Baveno VI elastography criteria for the definition of compensated advanced chronic liver disease.

BACKGROUND: The Baveno VI consensus proposed a dual liver stiffness (LS) by transient elastography threshold of <10 and >15 kPa for excluding and diagnosing compensated advanced chronic liver disease (cACLD) in the absence of other clinical signs. Herein, we aimed to validate these criteria in a real-world multicentre study. METHODS: We included 5,648 patients (mean age 51 ± 13 years, 53% males) from 10 European liver centres who had a liver biopsy and LS measurement within 6 months. We included patients with chronic hepatitis C (n = 2,913, 52%), non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD, n = 1,073, 19%), alcohol-related liver disease (ALD, n = 946, 17%) or chronic hepatitis B (n = 716, 13%). cACLD was defined as fibrosis stage ≥F3. RESULTS: Overall, 3,606 (66%) and 987 (18%) patients had LS <10 and >15 kPa, respectively, while cACLD was histologically confirmed in 1,772 (31%) patients. The cut-offs of <10 and >15 kPa showed 75% sensitivity and 96% specificity to exclude and diagnose cACLD, respectively. Examining the ROC curve, a more optimal dual cut-off at <7 and >12 kPa, with 91% sensitivity and 92% specificity for excluding and diagnosing cACLD (AUC 0.87; 95% CI 0.86-0.88; p <0.001) was derived. Specifically, for ALD and NAFLD, a low cut-off of 8 kPa can be used (sensitivity=93%). For the unclassified patients, we derived a risk model based on common patient characteristics with better discrimination than LS alone (AUC 0.74 vs. 0.69; p <0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Instead of the Baveno VI proposed <10 and >15 kPa dual cut-offs, we found that the <8 kPa (or <7 kPa for viral hepatitis) and >12 kPa dual cut-offs have better diagnostic accuracy in cACLD. LAY SUMMARY: The term compensated advanced chronic liver disease (cACLD) was introduced in 2015 to describe the spectrum of advanced fibrosis and cirrhosis in asymptomatic patients. It was also suggested that cACLD could be diagnosed or ruled out based on specific liver stiffness values, which can be non-invasively measured by transient elastography. Herein, we assessed the suggested cut-off values and identified alternative values that offered better overall accuracy for diagnosing or ruling out cACLD.