Acoustic radiation force impulse elastography for non-invasive assessment of disease stage in patients with primary biliary cirrhosis: A preliminary study.

AIM: To investigate the diagnostic performance of the acoustic radiation force impulse (ARFI) elastography for the assessment of primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC) stage.

MATERIALS AND

METHODS

Sixty-one patients with PBC in which liver biopsy and ARFI elastography measurements were performed in the same session were included in the study. The diagnostic performance of ARFI elastography for predicting the PBC stage was determined from the area under receiver operating characteristics (AUROC) curve analysis.

RESULTS

ARFI elastography correlated significantly with histological stage (r = 0.74, p < 0.001) in patients with PBC. The AUROC of ARFI elastography for predicting histological stage equal to or higher than II, III, and equal to IV were 0.83, 0.93, and 0.91, respectively. The optimal cut-off values of ARFI elastography were 1.51 m/s, 1.79 m/s, and 2.01 m/s for PBC stage equal to or higher than II, III, and equal to IV, respectively.

CONCLUSION

ARFI elastography is an acceptable and powerful technique for quantitative assessment of PBC stage.