Performance of 2D-SWE.GE for predicting different stages of liver fibrosis, using Transient Elastography as the reference method

Abstract

To evaluate the performance of 2D shear-wave elastography from General Electric (2D-SWE.GE) for the noninvasiveassessment of liver fibrosis and to identify liver stiffness (LS) cut-off values for predicting different stages of fibrosisusing Transient Elastography (TE) as the reference method. We included 331 consecutive subjectswith or without chronic hepatopathies in whom LS was evaluated in the same session by means of 2 elastographic techniques:TE and 2D-SWE.GE. Reliable LS measurements were defined for TE as the median value of 10 measurements with a successrate of ≥60% and an interquartile range (IQR)<30% and for 2D-SWE.GE as the median value of 10 measurements acquiredin a homogenous area and an IQR<30%. To discriminate between TE fibrosis stages we used the following cut-offs: F2- 7;F3- 9.5 and F4- 12kPa. Reliable LS measurements were obtained in 95.8% subjects by 2D-SWE.GE, and 94.2%by TE (p=0.44). Based on TE cut-off values we divided our cohort into four groups: F<2: 30.1%; F=2: 10.2%; F=3: 12.2%;F=4: 47.5%. A strong correlation was found between the LS values obtained by the 2 methods: r=0.83, p<0.0001.LS valuesobtained by 2D-SWE.GE were significantly lower than those obtained by TE: 10.14±4.24 kPa vs. 16.72±13.4 kPa (p<0.0001).The best cut-off value for F≥2, F≥3 and for F=4 were 6.7, 8.2 and 9.3 kPa. The best 2D-SWE.GE cut-off valuesfor predicting F≥2, F≥3 and F=4 were 6.7, 8.2 and 9.3kPa.