Evaluation of Inter-System Variability in Liver Stiffness Measurements.

Title

Evaluation of Inter-System Variability in Liver Stiffness Measurements.

Creator

Ferraioli Giovanna; De Silvestri Annalisa; Lissandrin Raffaella; Maiocchi Laura; Tinelli Carmine; Filice Carlo; Barr Richard G

Publisher

Ultraschall in der Medizin (Stuttgart, Germany : 1980)

Date

2019
2019-02

Description

AIM: The primary aim of this study was to determine the inter-system variability of liver stiffness measurements (LSMs) in patients with varying degrees of liver stiffness. The secondary aim was to determine the inter-observer variability of measurements. MATERIALS AND METHODS: 21 individuals affected by chronic hepatitis C and 5 healthy individuals were prospectively enrolled. The assessment of LSMs was performed using six ultrasound (US) systems, four of which with point shear wave elastography (p-SWE) and two with 2 D shear wave elastography (2D-SWE) systems. The Fibroscan (Echosens, France) was used as the reference standard. Four observers performed the measurements in pairs (A-B, C-D). The agreement between different observers or methods was calculated using Lin's concordance correlation coefficient. The Bland-Altman limits of agreement (LOA) were calculated as well. RESULTS: There was agreement above 0.80 for all pairs of systems. The mean difference between the values of the systems with 2D-SWE technique was 1.54 kPa, whereas the maximum mean difference between the values of three out of four systems with the pSWE technique was 0.79 kPa. The intra-patient concordance for all systems was 0.89 (95 % CI: 0.83 - 0.94). Inter-observer agreement was 0.96 (95 % CI: 0.94 - 0.98) for the pair of observers A-B and 0.93 (95 % CI: 0.89 - 0.96) for the pair of observers C-D. CONCLUSION: The results of this study show that the agreement between LSMs performed with different US systems is good to excellent and the overall inter-observer agreement in "ideal conditions" is above 0.90 in expert hands.

Rights

Article information provided for research and reference use only. All rights are retained by the journal listed under publisher and/or the creator(s).

Pages

64–75

Issue

1

Volume

40

NEOMED College

NEOMED College of Medicine

NEOMED Department

Department of Radiology

Affiliated Hospital

Mercy Health St Elizabeth Boardman Hospital

Citation

Ferraioli Giovanna; De Silvestri Annalisa; Lissandrin Raffaella; Maiocchi Laura; Tinelli Carmine; Filice Carlo; Barr Richard G, “Evaluation of Inter-System Variability in Liver Stiffness Measurements.,” NEOMED Bibliography Database, accessed March 28, 2024, https://neomed.omeka.net/items/show/4042.