Acoustic radiation force impulse elastography for non-invasive assessment of disease stage in patients with primary biliary cirrhosis: A preliminary study

• This is the first study evaluating the value of ARFI elastography for the assessment of PBC stage.
• ARFI elastography correlated significantly with PBC stage.
• The AUROC of ARFI elastography for predicting PBC stage ≥ II, ≥ III, and = IV were 0.83, 0.93, 0.91, respectively.

AimTo investigate the diagnostic performance of the acoustic radiation force impulse (ARFI) elastography for the assessment of primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC) stage.Materials and methodsSixty-one patients with PBC in which liver biopsy and ARFI elastography measurements were performed in the same session were included in the study. The diagnostic performance of ARFI elastography for predicting the PBC stage was determined from the area under receiver operating characteristics (AUROC) curve analysis.ResultsARFI elastography correlated significantly with histological stage (r = 0.74, p < 0.001) in patients with PBC. The AUROC of ARFI elastography for predicting histological stage equal to or higher than II, III, and equal to IV were 0.83, 0.93, and 0.91, respectively. The optimal cut-off values of ARFI elastography were 1.51 m/s, 1.79 m/s, and 2.01 m/s for PBC stage equal to or higher than II, III, and equal to IV, respectively.ConclusionARFI elastography is an acceptable and powerful technique for quantitative assessment of PBC stage.