A Noninvasive Method-Shear-Wave Elastography Compared With Transient Elastography in Evaluation of Liver Fibrosis in Patients With Chronic Hepatitis B

The aim of our study was to investigate the efficiency and feasibility of shear-wave elastography (sound touch elastography [STE], sound touch quantification [STQ]) compared with transient elastography (FibroScan) assessment in noninvasively and quantitatively identifying the degree of liver fibrosis. A total of 158 patients with chronic hepatitis B were included, and all accepted STE, STQ, and FibroScan assessments. Young's modulus (kPa) of STE, STQ, and FibroScan were evaluated, and the diagnostic performance of the 3 techniques on liver fibrosis stage was compared. The final diagnosis was based on histological findings from liver biopsy. Of all these patients, 36 patients were categorized as G/S < 2, and 122 were as G/S >= 2 according to Scheuer G/S scoring system. STEmean and STQ(mean) measurements were positively correlated with liver fibrosis stage with high correlation (r = 0.852 and r = 0.803, respectively). Receiver operating characteristic analysis of STE, STQ, and FibroScan revealed that the areas under the curve of STE and STQ were markedly increased compared with that of FibroScan when differentiating early stage of liver fibrosis (S1, S2). It was concluded that shear-wave elastography (STE, STQ, and FibroScan) performs well in evaluation of liver fibrosis in patients with chronic hepatitis B, and the efficacies of STE and STQ are better than that of FibroScan.