Can Shearwave Elastography as an Adjunct Non-Invasive Technique to Ultrasound Help in Better Characterization of Focal Liver Lesions?

Abstract

Background: To characterise the elasticity properties of focal liver lesions (FLLs) using shear wave elastography (SWE) and to evaluate the clinical utility of SWE for lesion characterization. Aim of Study:To determine the elasticity of the different focal hepatic lesions by shearwave elastography (SWE) and to assess the shearwave elastography (SWE) ability to characterise the different hepatic focal lesions.Patients and Methods: This study used SWE in 26 patients with 30 FLLs for quantitative FLLs stiffness assessment. Stiffness was calculated for each lesion in (kPa). Histopathology or triphasic CT was used as reference standards for characterising the lesion. With the help of the statistical program SPSS version 22, data were coded and entered.Results: SWE acquisitions failed in 5 nodules (17%) in 5 patients. For the 25 lesions successfully evaluated, There is a significant difference in stiffness values between malignant and benign groups with (p<0.001), SWE values were (in kPa), for the 9 HCCs (20.67±5.22), for the nine metastatic lesions was (35.89±12.55), for the 4 Haemangiomas (7.50±2.38), for the two focal fatty infiltration (8.50±0.71 kPa ), for one hepatic abscess (7±2 kPa).Conclusions: SWE is an adjunct to conventional ultrasound that can provide additional information with a more precise characterisation of focal liver lesions composition based on its tissue elasticity values, especially in cases where contrast imaging is contraindicated. However, the evaluation of the diagnostic accuracy of this technique needs a study with larger patient samples.