The Place of Liver Elastography in Diagnosis of Alcohol-Related Liver Disease

Abstract

Harmful use of alcohol is associated with more than 200 diseases and types of injuries, the liver being one of the most important targets. Alcoholic liver disease (ALD) is the most frequent cause of severe chronic liver disease in Europe and worldwide. ALD can progress from alcoholic fatty liver to alcoholic steatohepatitis and alcoholic liver cirrhosis, the grade of fibrosis being the key prognostic factor for the severity of the diseases. This chapter will present the place of liver elastography in the noninvasive assessment of ALD. It will describe the data available in the literature regarding the different elastography techniques for liver stiffness assessment and also the potential of these techniques for screening ALD.