Introduction: Ultrasound based elastographic method are increasingly used in the last years for non-invasive
assessment of liver fibrosis.
Our aim was to compare the feasibility and the liver stiffness (LS) values obtained by means of the two available point Shear Wave
Elastographic (pSWE) techniques: ARFI elastography and ElastPQ technique.
Methods:Our study included 176 adult subjects with or without chronic liver disease, in which LS was evaluated in the same session by means of ARFI elastography and ElastPQ technique. Reliable ARFI measurements were defined as median of 10
valid LS measurements with IQR<30% and SR≥60%. Reliable ElastPQ measurements were defined as median of 10 valid LS measurements. The results were expressed in meters/second (m/s) for both techniques.
Results: The rate of reliable LS measurements was similar for ARFI and ElastPQ: 96.5% vs. 97.7%,p=0.72. A strong correlation (r=0.616) was observed between LS values assessed by means of ARFI elastography and ElastPQ (p<0.0001). The mean LS values by ARFI were significantly higher than those obtained by ElastPQ: 1.46±0.69m/s vs. 1.32±
0.52m/s,p=0.0004. For a LS cut-off value >1.4m/s, ARFI elastography had 83.1% accuracy (AUROC=0.822) to differentiate
between subjects with or without chronic liver disease, while the best ElastPQ cut-off value to discriminate between these two categories of subjects was >1.23 meters/second, with 83.7% accuracy (AUROC=0.851). The AUROCs of ARFI elastography and ElastPQ for predicting the presence of liver diseases were similar (p=0.48).
Conclusions: Both pSWE techniques have very good feasibility for LS assessment and a good performance for predicting the presence of liver pathology.
