Supersonic shear imaging for the diagnosis of liver fibrosis and portal hypertension in liver diseases: a meta-analysis

ABSTRACT

Background and aims: The meta-analysis aimed to summarize the technical success rate of supersonic shear imaging (SSI) and to evaluate the diagnostic performance of liver and spleen stiffness measurement (LSM and SSM) with SSI for the detection of liver fibrosis, portal hypertension, and gastroesophageal varices in liver diseases.

Methods: PubMed, EMBASE, and Cochrane Library databases were searched. Technical success rate of SSI was pooled. Area under curve (AUC), sensitivity, and specificity with corresponding 95% confidence interval (CI) were calculated.

Results: Included studies regarding the diagnostic performance of SSI for liver fibrosis, portal hypertension, and esophageal varices numbered 28, 4, and 4 respectively. The pooled technical success rates of LSM and SSM were 95.3% and 75.5%, respectively. The AUC, sensitivity, and specificity of LSM/SSM for different stages of liver fibrosis were 0.85–0.94, 0.7–0.89, and 0.82–0.92, respectively. The AUC, sensitivity, and specificity of LSM were 0.84 (95%CI = 0.8–0.86), 0.79 (95%CI = 0.7–0.85), and 0.82 (95%CI = 0.72–0.88) for clinically significant portal hypertension, 0.85 (95%CI = 0.82–0.88), 0.8 (95%CI = 0.68–0.88), and 0.8 (95%CI = 0.6–0.92) for any varices, and 0.86 (95%CI = 0.83–0.89), 0.86 (95%CI = 0.76–0.92), and 0.61 (95%CI = 0.35–0.83) for high-risk varices, respectively.

Conclusions: LSM with SSI had a high diagnostic accuracy for liver fibrosis, but a moderate diagnostic accuracy for portal hypertension and esophageal varices.

KEYWORDS:

• Diagnostic accuracy
• liver fibrosis
• portal hypertension
• varices
• stiffness measurement

Declaration of interest

The authors have no relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript. This includes employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants or patents received or pending, or royalties.

Supplemental data

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed here.

Additional information

Funding

This article was not funded.