Comparison of shear wave elastography (supersonic) with liver biopsy in a cohort of patients from a medium-income country: an observational study

Introduction: shear-wave elastography is a non-invasive diagnostic test that calculates the degree of liver fibrosis by measuring liver elasticity. This technique was recently introduced in Colombia. Thus, cutoff points delineating the change between fibrosis stages (using the Metavir scale) have not been previously defined in our patient population. Patients and methods: a retrospective study was performed of patients who had undergone two-dimensional shear-wave elastography (2D-SWE) and liver biopsy (LB) between June 2010 and June 2018 at a private outpatient hepatology center in Bogota, Colombia. We used a training dataset (subjects with time between biopsy and 2D-SWE of <= 6 months) to establish diagnostic cutoff values and a test dataset (subjects with time between biopsy and 2D-SWE of > 6 months) to validate our results. Results: a total of 453 subjects (training dataset, n = 153; test dataset, n = 300) were included. In the training dataset, the cutoff points were 7.6, 8.4, 9.5 and 10.9 kPa, and the areas under the curve were 0.75, 0.83, 0.89 and 0.94 for mild fibrosis, significant fibrosis, advanced fibrosis and cirrhosis, respectively. In the test dataset, the areas under the curve were 0.77, 0.78, 0.83 and 0.89 for mild fibrosis, significant fibrosis, advanced fibrosis, and cirrhosis, respectively. Conclusion: two-dimensional shear-wave elastography was reliable and useful for the non-invasive evaluation of liver fibrosis, particularly in patients with advanced fibrosis and cirrhosis. Cutoff points for fibrosis in a Hispanic population were described.

Automated summary

Shear-wave elastography is a reliable method for non-invasive evaluation of liver fibrosis in a Hispanic population. By establishing cutoff points for different fibrosis stages, this study demonstrated the usefulness of two-dimensional shear-wave elastography in diagnosing liver fibrosis.