Accuracy of Shear Wave Elastography in Determining Liver Fibrosis among Patients with Chronic Liver Disease..

               Background. Assessment of liver fibrosis is a major parameter in determining progression of chronic liver  disease. The most accurate way of determining fibrosis is liver biopsy (LBx), but it is invasive. Real- time Shear  Wave  Elastography (SWE) is a real-time non-invasive way of assessing liver fibrosis by measuring liver stiffness.

                Methods. The aim of the study  is to assess the accuracy of SWE in determining liver fibrosis in patients with chronic liver  disease. This is a single-center prospective study where we enrolled 120 patients with chronic liver disease of varying etiology with or without cirrhosis. All patients underwent real-time SWE and LBx. Histopathology fibrosis scores were assessed on biopsy specimens by a blinded liver pathologist. Real-time SWE was performed in the same day using the Aixplorer ultrasound systenm (Supersonic Imagine S.A., Aix-en-Provence , France). calculated were optimal ares under the curve through the use of reciever operating characteristics (ROC) for F0 vs F1-F4 ,F0-F1 vs F2-F4 , F0-F2 vs F3-F4 and F0-F3 vs F4.

                 The ROC values show parallel increase in the values of the stiffness as liver fibrosis progressive.

                 Conclusion. Rwal-time SWE is accurate in assessing liver fibrosis.