Application value of two-dimensional shear wave elastography for detecting chemotherapy-induced changes of liver stiffness in postoperative breast cancer patients / 中华超声影像学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective:To detect the changes of liver stiffness before and after chemotherapy in postoperative breast cancer patients using the two-dimensional shear wave elastography (2D-SWE) technique, and analyze its correlation with liver serum indexs, then discuss the application value of 2D-SWE technique in the quantitative diagnosis for chemotherapeutic liver injury.Methods:Sixty breast cancer patients underwent postoperative chemotherapy in Qilu Hospital of Shandong University from January 2021 to November 2021 were included. Conventional two-dimensional ultrasound, 2D-SWE and the serum tests including alanine aminotransferase(ALT), aspartate aminotransferase(AST), γ-glutamyltransferase(γ-GT), alkaline phosphatase(AKP) were performed before and after chemotherapy, respectively. The medians of ElastQ Imaging stiffness (EQI meds) of the whole liver and different liver segments (S4, S5/S6, S7/S8) before and after chemotherapy were measured and compared. The EQI meds of different liver segments (S4, S5/S6, S7/S8) after chemotherapy were compared. The correlation between EQI med of the whole liver and serum indexes after chemotherapy was analyzed. Results:①Compared with before chemotherapy, the EQI meds of the whole liver and different liver segments after chemotherapy were significantly decreased ( P<0.001, respectively). ②The EQI meds among different liver segments were different after chemotherapy ( F=7.489, P=0.001). Moreover, the EQI meds of S5/S6 and S7/S8 were significantly lower than those of S4 after chemotherapy ( P=0.002, 0.001). ③The EQI med of the whole liver was negatively correlated with ALT, AST, and γ-GT ( r=-0.776, P<0.001; r=-0.656, P<0.001; r=-0.428, P=0.010), while there was no correlation between the EQI med of the whole liver and AKP ( r=-0.146, P=0.267). Conclusions:2D-SWE is expected to be a new, real-time, noninvasive and quantitative method to evaluate the changes of liver stiffness before and after chemotherapy in postoperative patients, thus provides a promising method for the early clinical diagnosis of chemotherapy-induced liver injury in breast cancer patients.