Performance of shear-waves elastography in the non-invasive assessment of thyroid stiffness in patients with viral hepatitis

Abstract

Results We assessed 21 patients with chronic HCV infection, with a male-to-female ratio of 0.6:1. The mean age was 51.4 ± 11.9 years. The mean duration of HCV infection was 5.2 ± 5.5 years (range: 0-20 years). The predominant HCV genotype was 1b (in 16 patients – data not available for 5 patients), and the predominant IL28-B genotype was CT (9 patients), followed by TT (7 patients) and CC (3 patients) – IL28-B data were not available for 2 patients. Most (17, 81.0%) of the patients had received prior anti-HCV therapy with peg-interferon+ribavirin (PR) or direct-acting antivirals (DAA)-based treatment, and 13 of them displayed SVR (12 with DAA-based therapy and one with PR – the patient had an IL28-B genotype CC), while 4 displayed non-response to PR (IL28-B genotypes CT and TT). Eight of the patients (38.1%) had a previously diagnosed thyroid dysfunction, and 4 of them (19.0%) were under thyroid substitution treatment at the time of evaluation. Five of the patients (23.8%) presented thyroid nodules on ultrasound examination. The mean liver SWE was 9.6 ± 4.2 kPa and the mean thyroid SWE was 25.1 ± 10.4 kPa overall, and 26.2 ± 11.3 kPa for the left thyroid lobe and 24.7 ± 13.0 kPa for the right thyroid lobe.