Liver Elastography for Liver Fibrosis Stratification: A Comparison of Three Techniques in a Biopsy-Controlled MASLD Cohort

Abstract

Background: The aim of this study was to investigate the accuracy in fibrosis staging of a novel shear wave elastography (SWE) device (S-Shearwave Imaging by Samsung) and a previously validated 2D-SWE by Supersonic Imagine (SSI) in patients with biopsy proven metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD). Methods: This prospective study included 75 consecutive patients with MASLD who underwent liver biopsy for suspected MASH. All patients underwent S-Shearwave Imaging by Samsung and 2D-SWE with SSI on the same day of liver biopsy. Fibrosis was histologically assessed using the METAVIR classification system. Agreement between the equipment was assessed with the Pearson coefficient. A receiver operator characteristic curve (ROC) analysis with the Youden index was used to establish thresholds for fibrosis staging. Results: A good correlation was found between S-Shearwave Imaging by Samsung and 2D-SWE with SSI (Pearson’s R = 0.68; p p p value 0.16 and 0.15, respectively) while is slightly better than 2D-SWE, FIB4 and NFS (DeLong test p value Conclusion: S-Shearwave Imaging is a useful and reliable non-invasive technique for staging liver fibrosis in patients with MASLD. Its diagnostic accuracy is non-inferior to other shear wave elastography techniques (TE and 2D-SWE by SSI).

Keywords

• SWE
• Shearwave elastography
• liver fibrosis
• MASLD