The Accuracy of a Non-Invasive Liver Fibrosis Evaluation Method, Shear WaveElastography: A Retrospective Pilot Study

Objective: Liver stiffness measurements using shear wave elastography (SWE) for the non-invasive evaluation of liver fibrosis have been developed in the last few years. However, the usefulness of SWE has not been fully investigated. We aimed to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of SWE for the assessment of liver fibrosis in patients with liver disease. Methods: A total of 54 consecutive patients who underwent SWE measurement and liver biopsy were included. Receiver-operator characteristic (ROC) curves were constructed to calculate the area under the ROC curve (AUC) for F0-2 versus F3-4 and F0-3 versus F4. Results: Fibrosis scores estimated by SWE were F0 for 9 cases, F1 for 18 cases, F2 for 11 cases, F3 for 9 cases, and F4 for 7 cases. The median shear wave velocity in each type of fibrosis was 1.77 m/s in F0, 1.81 m/s in F1, 1.88 m/s in F2, 2.39 m/s in F3, and 3.11 m/s in F4. AUCs for severe fibrosis (F3 and F4) and cirrhosis (F4) were 0.931 (P<0.001) and 0.916 (P<0.001), respectively. Shear wave velocity correlated significantly with liver fibrosis obtained by liver biopsy (r=0.679, P<0.001). Conclusion: SWE is a useful and non-invasive technology to estimate liver fibrosis in liver disease regardless of etiology.