Application study on severity degree of chronic liver disease using ultrasonic elastography quantitative analysis

Objective To evaluate the diagnostic value of chronic liver disease using real-time elastography tissue dispersion quantitative analysis software. Methods Twenty-one healthy volunteers,57 patients with liver fibrosis and 13 patients with liver cirrhosis were examined by real-time elastography. Twelve parameters of tissue dispersion quantitative analysis obtained from this test were compared with pathological stages of liver biopsies. Results There were significant differences in 12 parameters except for KURT and CORR among the groups. There was a good correlation between other parameters and pathological stages except for KURT(P0.05). Among the parameters,the MEAN,%AREA and LF index had the highest related coefficient(r=-0.634,0.620,0.619). The ROC curve was made by %AREA,LF index and MEAN. Distinguished between normal group and liver fibrosis+ cirrhosis group and distinguished between normal + liver fibrosis group and liver cirrhosis group,the areas under the ROC curve were 0.830,0.910(%AREA);0.813,0.936(LF index);0.832,0.928(MEAN).Conclusion It is helpful to distinguish liver changes among healthy volunteers,patients with liver fibrosis and patients with liver cirrhosis using real-time ultrasound elastography. The MEAN,LF index and %AREA have great value on diagnosing chronic liver disease because of their highest correlation with pathological stages of chronic liver disease.