Chronic viral hepatitis is still the leading cause of liver fibrosis. It can progress to cirrhosis with its complications, including portal hypertension, end-stage liver disease and hepatocellular carcinoma.Nowadays, liver stiffness, which is directly related to liver fibrosis, can be assessed using ultrasound (US)-based non-invasive methods which have replaced liver biopsy in several clinical settings. Transient elastography (TE), which was the first method released, is considered the reference standard, however it needs a dedicated system which does not provide US imaging of the liver. Shear wave...

This was a single center cross-sectional study. Between January and September 2016, consecutive patients affected by chronic viral hepatitis referred for liver stiffness measurement (LSM) with the FibroScandevice (Echosens, Paris, France), who also voluntarily accepted to undergo LSMwith SWM, were prospectively enrolled. The study protocol was approved by the institutional Ethics Committee and it was in accordance with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2008. Informed written consent was obtained from each subject for inclusion in the study. Two trained physicians obtained SWM...

We studied 411 consecutive patients (218 males and 193 females). Three hundred and eighty-two patients (92.9%) were affected by chronic hepatitis C. Patients’ demographics, their biochemical and stiffness data are reported in Table 1. Table 1 Characteristics n =411 Sex, men (%) 218 (53.0%) Age, yrs, (SD) 61.2 (13.2) BMI, kg/m2 (SD) 24.6 (3.7) AST, IU/L (IQR) 33 (23-56) ALT, IU/L (IQR) 33 (18-73) ALP, IU/L (IQR) 72 (60-93) GGT, IU/L (IQR) 40 (23-75) Platelets count, 103/mm3, (SD) 168 (74) Fibrosis stage (as assessed with...

These preliminary results show that this SWM method is a useful tool for staging liver fibrosis non-invasively in patients with chronic viral hepatitis.

Ultrasound Unit, Infectious Diseases Dept., Fondazione IRCCS Policlinico San Matteo, University of Pavia

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