Superiority of a new shear wave elastography in evaluation of liver fibrosis

Abstract

Shear wave with Smart maps (SwSm) installed on Aplio500 developed by Toshiba Medical Systems Corp. allows us to estimate elasticity and visualize shear wave propagation by displaying contour lines of the shear wave arrival time. The usefulness of this device was compared with that of ACUSON (VTQ), Aixplorer (SWE), FibroScan (TE). Fifty-one patients who received liver biopsy, or diagnosed clinically as liver cirrhosis were studied. Correlation between the devices was evaluated in 142 patients who were assessed fibrosis by more than two devices. ROC analysis showed 0.950/0.943/0.913/0.923 in SwSm/VTQ/SWE/TE, respectively. Correlations between the devices were 0.853/0.956/0.885, in SwSm vs VTQ, SwSm vs SWE, SwSm vs TE, respectively. SwSm was superior to the other devices studied here in a non-invasive assessment of liver fibrosis. Moreover, Toshiba SwSm assures a reliable assessment by visualizing propagation of the shear waves.