The applicability of sound touch elastography and sound touch quantify in measuring liver and spleen stiffness

Abstract

Objective To assess the applicability of sound touch elastography (STE) and sound touch quantify (STQ) in measuring liver and spleen stiffness. Methods One hundred and eighteen healthy volunteers were included and underwent STE and STQ. The success rate, variability and reproducibility of STE and STQ were analyzed. The accurate sampling size and number of tests for liver STQ were also analyzed. Results The success rates, variability, reproducibility of STE and STQ in liver were 97.5% and 99.2%, 8.7% and 12.0%, 0.917 and 0.916, respectively. While those with spleen were 76.3% and 66.9%, 12.4% and 16.4%, 0.847 and 0.706, respectively. The sampling size of 1.5 cm×1.0 cm yield the lowest variability (8.5%)(F=6.562, P=0.002), and there was no significant difference between results of detecting 5 times and 10 times(P=0.571). The liver and spleen stiffness of STE were 5.75 kPa (95%CI: 5.60-5.91 kPa) and 15.58 kPa (95%CI: 14.99-16.16 kPa). Conclusions The measurement of liver stiffness using both STE and STQ have a high success rate and low variability. However, STE is better than STQ in measuring spleen stiffness. Key words: Sound touch elastography; Sound touch quantify; Liver stiffness; Spleen stiffness