Association between shear wave liver elastography and fibrosis index in chronic viral hepatitis B patients

Abstract

Background: Chronic viral hepatitis B causes chronic inflammatory process, hepatocyte damage, progressive fibrosis, and irreversible liver damage, leading to high morbidity. There are two methods of diagnosing liver fibrosis, invasive (biopsy) and non-invasive, including radiological examination using the elastography method and hematological examination. This study aims to determine the relationship between the elasticity of liver parenchyma using the Shear Wave Elastography (SWE) method and fibrosis index in chronic viral hepatitis B patients. Methods: This research is a cross-sectional study using 68 samples that met the inclusion criteria. The 2D-SWE examination was blindly performed by two observers using a convex transducer probe with frequencies ranging from 1.2 to 6 MHz. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 20.0 for Windows. Results: In our study, there was a significant moderate positive correlation between the elasticity of liver parenchyma and the fibrosis index performed by both observers (r=0.52; p < 0.001). After controlling confounding variables, a higher correction was obtained (r=0.61), suggesting a change from moderate to strong correlation (p<0.05). Conclusion: There was a positive and significant correlation between the elasticity of liver parenchyma and fibrosis index.