Transient elastography in clinical detection of liver cirrhosis: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Abstract

Background/Aims: Transient elastography is a noninvasive method for measuring liver fibrosis. This meta-analysis assesses the diagnostic performance of transient elastography of detecting liver cirrhosis in patients with liver disease. Patients and Methods: We searched MEDLINE, Cochrane, EMBASE databases until Jan 31, 2015, using the following search terms: elastography and liver cirrhosis. Included studies assessed patients with a diagnosis of liver cirrhosis, with an index test of transient elastography, and with the reference standard being a histopathological exam by liver biopsy. Sensitivity analysis and assessment of risk of bias and publication bias were performed. Results: Fifty-seven studies were included in the meta-analysis with a total of 10,504 patients. The pooled estimate for the sensitivity of transient elastography for detecting liver fibrosis was 81% and the specificity was 88%. The imputed diagnostic odds ratio (DOR) was 26.08 and the area under the receiver-operating characteristic (AUROC) curve was 0.931. Conclusion: Our findings indicate that transient elastography shows good sensitivity, specificity and a high accuracy for detecting liver cirrhosis. Transient elastography can be used as an additional method for the clinical diagnosis of liver fibrosis and cirrhosis.

Keywords

• Cirrhosis
• liver fibrosis
• sensitivity
• specificity
• transient change to elastography