Noninvasive assessment of liver fibrosis by Virtual touch tissues quantification

Objective To investigate the clinical value of Virtual Touch Tissues Quantification(VTQ)in the assessment of liver fibrosis.Methods Two hundred and seventy-one patients underwent liver biopsy,or before/after liver surgery within one month in our hospital were examined by VTQ.There were 207 males and 64 females with an average age of(54.00±12.67)years old.ACUSON S2000 ultrasound system was used and each subject received VTQ measurements in the right lobe of liver for five to ten times.Liver fibrosis was evaluated according to the Scheuer scoring system for a S0-S4 scale.The pathological diagnosis served as the gold standard,to evaluate VTQ technique in the prediction of staging of liver fibrosis and the optimal cutoff value.Results The cases of different stages(S0～S4)of liver fibrosis were 28,29,41,52 and 121,respectively.The mean values of VTQ in S0-S4 were(1.26±0.31)m/s,(1.28±0.28)m/s,(1.31±0.31)m/s,(1.54±0.44)m/s,and(1.93±0.50)m/s,respectively.There were no significant differences between the mean value of VTQ in the S0 and S1 subgroup,or S1 and S2 subgroup.There were significant differences between the mean value of VTQ in the S0-S2 and S3 subgroup,and S3 and S4 subgroup.The areas under ROC curves were 0.821(95% CI:0.771-0.871)for S≥S3 and 0.828(95% CI:0.779-0.877)for S=S4.In our study,the optimal cutoff value was 1.43 m/s for S0-S2 vs.S3-S4,with a sensitivity of 76%,specificity of 77%,and 1.52 m/s for S0-S3 vs.S4,with a sensitivity of 80%,specificity of 73%.Conclusions VTQ technique is a new,noninvasive and promising method in the assessment of liver fibrosis.