Evaluation on the value of ultrasonic quantitative method in diagnosing liver fibrosis in chronic hepatitis B patients / 中华传染病杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To evaluate the value of ultrasonic quantitative method in the diagnosis of liver fibrosis in chronic hepatitis B (CHB) patients. Methods Ultrasonography was performed in 186 CHB patients who underwent liver biopsies. Fifteen indices including liver capsule thickness and fourteen texture parameters of gray level co-occurrence matrix were extracted from standard sonograms and compared with fibrosis stages by histopathology. The status of liver fibrosis was divided into five stages from S0 to S4 by histopathology based on the disease severity. ANOVA and Spearman correlation analysis were applied to analyze the differences and relationships between these indices and pathological stage, respectively. Then discriminant analysis models were established based on the indices for quantitative diagnosis of liver fibrosis. Results Among the fifteen indices, including liver capsule thickness, only the variance (F=0. 55, r=0. 06; both P＞0. 05), sum average (F=0.61, both r=0.05 ; P＞0.05), sum entropy (F=1.68, r=0.09; both P≥0.05) and entropy (F=1.39,r=0.12; both P＞0.05) were not significantly associated with the stages and not manifested linear correlation. Using biopsy results as gold standard, the correct rank rate of discriminant analysis model analysis in the patients staged from S0 to S4 were 80. 0%, 64. 9%, 61.3%, 74. 1% and 80.6 %, respectively. There were 73.1% of cross-validated cases who were accurately classified by the model analysis. The sensitivity, specificity and accuracy in patients with stage ≥ 1 were 97. 6%,80.0% and 91.9%, respectively; those in patients with stage≥2 were 92.1%, 89.7% and 90.9%,respectively; those in patients with stage≥3 were 94.8%, 96.1% and 95.7%; and those in patients with stage 4 were 80. 6%, 97.4 % and 94.6%, respectively. When considered S0 as no fibrosis, S1 as mild fibrosis, S2 and S3 as moderate to severe fibrosis and S4 as early cirrhosis, the consistence rates between discriminant analysis model and biopsy result were 81.7%, 78. 4%, 56. 9% and 90.3%,respectively. There were 74.7% of cross-validated cases who were correctly classified. The sensitivity, specificity and accuracy of the models for determining the fibrosis severity in patients≥mild fibrosis were 97.6%, 81.7% and 92.5%, respectively; those in patients ≥ moderate to severe fibrosis were 83. 1%, 94.8% and 89.2%, respectively; those in patients with early cirrhosis were 90.3%, 93.5% and 93.0%, respectively. Conclusion As a novel and noninvasive method, ultrasonic texture analysis could quantitatively determine liver fibrosis in CHB patients and is worthy of further investigation.