Diagnostic Accuracy of Shear Wave Elastography as a Non-invasive Biomarker of High-Risk Non-alcoholic Steatohepatitis in Patients with Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease.

Commentary

In this study, A. Ozturk et al. (Center for Ultrasound Research & Translation, Department of Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, USA) evaluated the diagnostic accuracy of shear wave elastography for differentiating high-risk NASH from non-alcoholic fatty liver and low-risk NASH.

One hundred sixteen adult patients underwent liver biopsy for the evaluation of NAFLD. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of shear wave elastography for high-risk NASH diagnosis was 0.73 (95% confidence interval: 0.61-0.84, p <0.001). The optimal stiffness cut-off value for high-risk NASH diagnosis was calculated as 8.4 kPa (1.67 m/s), with a sensitivity of 77% and specificity of 66%.