Spleen ultrasound elastography: state of the art and future directions - a systematic review.

OBJECTIVE: An early and accurate diagnosis of clinically significant portal hypertension is mandatory for a correct prediction and management of the complications usually observed in patients affected by chronic liver disease (CLD). Spleen stiffness measurement is arising as a promising non-invasive technique, giving a reliable measure of haemodynamic changes occurring during cirrhosis progression, but contrasting data are available to date. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A systematic review was performed including the several studies dealing with the spleen stiffness measurement in the evaluation of portal hypertension in adult patients affected by hepatic or extra-hepatic portal hypertension (PH). Results were organized in technical classification from the first one-dimensional device (TE) to the latest ultrasound elastographic techniques (pSWE and 2D-SWE). RESULTS: We evaluated a total of nearly twenty studies dealing with all available elastographic techniques that were usually compared with HVPG, which is the gold standard for diagnosing the presence of PH. Spleen stiffness showed overall a good diagnostic accuracy to diagnose clinically significant PH in CLD, in some cases even with reliable cut-off values for severe PH. CONCLUSIONS: Spleen ultrasound elastography could be an accurate non-invasive tool for assessing the presence of portal hypertension. However, the different techniques available to date and the various cut-off values suggested might still limit the impact on clinical practice.