The usefulness of 3 different points of the liver to evaluate fibrosis by transitional elastography

Abstract

Introduction and objective: The degree of liver fibrosis is diagnosed, among other studies, with transition elastography; it is known that liver injury is heterogeneous, so underdiagnosing the degree of fibrosis when performing the survey at a single point may be possibly described in a standard way. This study aimed to evaluate the sensitivity of transition elastography at three different points to determine its performance. Materials and Methods: Patients with liver disease were included; transition elastography was performed at three different points, point A at the site indicated by the manufacturers; point B, an intercostal space downwards; and point C, an intercostal space upwards; descriptive and inferential statistics were performed. Results: One hundred nine patients were evaluated, 64 men (59%) and 45 women (41%) average age of 52.6. Paired t-tests were run between the three different combinations (K1 vs. K2, K1 vs. K3, and K2 vs. K3). For all these tests, the value of p>0.05, no statistically significant differences were found between the measurements. Correlation tests were performed between the same combinations, finding a value of p<0.05 for the three, which means that the observations are correlated. ROC curves were constructed. It can be seen that in all 6 cases, the ROC curve is close to the ideal values. Figures 1 and 2. Conclusions: For the diagnosis of fibrosis, there is no difference between the three points in the same organ, even though the liver injury is heterogeneous. Funding: The resources used in this study were from the hospital without any additional financing Declaration of interest: The authors declare no potential conflicts of interest.