Investigation of diagnostic efficacy of arfi elastography method in noninvasive diagnosis and rating of liver fibrosis

The amount of fibrosis in the liver is a significant role in determining the prognosis andthe management of the disease process in patients with chronic liver parenchyma disease. The purpose of this study, in patients with chronic liver parenchyma disease in assessing presence and degree of liver fibrosis, ARFI Elastography method which is the reference method for diagnosis Ishak scoring system in comparison, evaluation of the accuracy and suitability for routine use is determined. 172 patients newly diagnosed of chronic liver parenchyma disease who were referred to Ege University Medicine Faculty Hospital, department of gastroenterology between February 2013 and March 2014 were enrolled prospectively to our study. Approval was taken from the hospital's ethics committee for this prospective study. Ultrasound and sonoelastography datas of liver and spleen, ratio of spleen/liver Vs were all compared. The correlation is between elasticity values and histological fibrosis stages was assessed using Spearman's correlation test. In our study, while fibrosis grade increased the average elastography values were found to be elevated similar to the results in the literature but there was no significant difference between liver stiffness and Ishak scorings because of overlapping elastographic values between the Ishak adjacent categories.