Comparison of Non-Invasive Methods and Liver Biopsy for Detecting Liver Fibrosis Associated with Chronic Hepatitis B

Objectives: Serological tests and elastography have recently been used more commonly for the detection of liver fibrosis. The aim of this study was to compare the histopathologically confirmed liver fibrosis stage with serological tests and point shear wave elastography (pSWE) in chronic hepatitis B (CHB) patients.Materials and Methods: Patients who underwent liver biopsy for CHB in the infectious diseases clinic were included. Demographic characteristics, laboratory results, and pSWE measurements were recorded retrospectively. pSWE measurements were evaluated according to the guidelines of the European Federation of Ultrasound Societies in Medicine and Biology.Results: Thirty-five patients were included in the study, 23 (65.7%) of whom were male. The mean age was 47.2 +/- 12.6. Significant fibrosis was found in 15 patients (42.9%) on histopathological evaluation. The mean pSWE value of patients with mild fibrosis was 1.6 +/- 0.5 m/sec and with significant fibrosis was 2.2 +/- 0.5 m/ sec. Significant fibrosis risk was shown to be associated with mean pSWE values (p=0.002) and the accuracy rate was calculated 62.8% (the area under the curve: 0.807). When the cut-off value of pSWE was taken as 1.77 m/sec to determine significant fibrosis (likelihood ratio: 2.67), the sensitivity was 80% and the specificity was 70% (p=0.002). The correlation between pSWE median values with age (r=0.452, p<0.01), body mass index (r=0.673, p<0.01), grade of steatosis (r=0.534, p<0.01), and stage of fibrosis (r=0.633, p<0.01) was calculated.Conclusion: pSWE is promising; however, it is thought that the method will develop further if pSWE is used more frequently in clinical practice.