Clinical value of ultrasound shear wave dispersion imaging for assessing the hepatic inflammation activity of chronic hepatitis B / 中华超声影像学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective:To investigate the clinical value of ultrasound shear wave dispersion (SWD) imaging in assessing the hepatic inflammation activity in patients with chronic hepatitis B.Methods:Fifty-two patients with chronic hepatitis B who underwent liver biopsy in Peking University Third Hospital and Beijing Ditan Hospital Affiliated to Capital Medical University from December 2020 to December 2021 were prospectively enrolled.Liver stiffness (LS) and shear wave dispersion slope (SWDS) were measured by SWD imaging in all participants. Baseline data and laboratory indexes of liver function were collected.Liver inflammation grading(G0-G4) and fibrosis staging (S0-S4) were determined by pathological examination. The relationship between SWDS and various indicators was analyzed by univariate and multivariate linear regression analysis. The participants were grouped according to the pathological grading of hepatic inflammatory activity. The differences of various indexes among three groups were compared, and the correlations between SWDS, LS and laboratory indicators and hepatic inflammatory activity were analyzed. The ROC curve was used to evaluate the diagnostic performances of ultrasound and laboratory indicators for hepatic inflammation activity, and the diagnostic accuracy of different indicators was compared by Delong test.Results:Inflammation and fibrosis were both independent affecting factors of SWDS (all P<0.05); there were significant differences in alanine transaminase(ALT), aspartate aminotransferase(AST), LS and SWDS among groups with different inflammatory activities (all P<0.05). The SWDS and LS of the G3 and G2 groups were statistically higher than those of the G1 group (all P<0.001). ALT was only significantly different between G1 group and G2 group ( P<0.05), and AST was only significantly different between G1 group and G3 group ( P<0.05); The SWDS and LS showed strongly positive correlation ( rs=0.728, P<0.001) and moderately positive correlation ( rs=0.679, P<0.001) with hepatic inflammatory activity, respectively; while the correlations between ALT, AST and hepatic inflammatory activity were weaker( rs=0.376, P<0.05; rs=0.485, P<0.001). The area under the ROC curve, sensitivity and specificity of SWDS for diagnosing hepatic inflammation ≥G2 grade were 0.965, 0.933 and 0.865, respectively. Conclusions:SWDS has certain value in evaluating the hepatic inflammatory activity of ≥G2 grade in patients with chronic hepatitis B.