Abstract:

Objective To explore the quantitative evaluation value of transient elastography (Fibro Scan) and acoustic radiation force pulse imaging(ARFI) for non-alcoholic fatty liver disease(NAFLD). Methods The clinical data of 90 NAFLD patients admitted to the hospital from January 2019 to January 2021 were retrospectively analyzed and divided into the simple fatty liver (SFL) group (38 cases), nonalcoholic steatohepatitis(NASH) group (33 cases) and liver cirrhosis(LC) group (19 cases) according to liver tissue pathological biopsy, another 10 healthy people who had physical examination were selected as the control group. Fibro Scan and ARFI were used to detect the fat attenuation parameters (FAI value), liver stiffness measure value (LSM value), and virtual touch tissue quantification value (VTQ value) in the four groups. Differences in FAI, LSM, and VTQ between patients with and without NAFLD were compared; Spearman correlation was used to analyze the relationship between disease severity of NAFLD patients and FAI value, LSM value, VTQ value; receiver operating characteristic(ROC) curve was used to analyze the diagnostic value of FAI, LSM, VTQ for NAFLD. Results Body mass index(BMI), alanine aminotransferase(ALT), aspartate aminotransferase(AST), total cholesterol(TC), triglycerides(TG), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol(LDL) of NAFLD patients were all higher than those of patients in the control group, while high-density lipoprotein cholesterol(HDL) was lower than that in the control group, difference was statistically significant (P<0.05). There was no statistically significant difference in gender and age (P>0.05). FAI value, LSM value, and VTQ value of NAFLD patients were significantly higher than those of patients in the control group. FAI value, LSM value and VTQ value of NAFLD patients with different disease severity were compared with statistical significance (P<0.05). Spearman correlation analysis showed that LSM value and VTQ value were significantly positively correlated with disease severity of NAFLD patients (r=0.377, 0.536, P<0.01), while FAI value was significantly negatively correlated with disease severity of NAFLD patients (r=-0.462, P<0.01). ROC curve showed that FAI, LSM, and VTQ had certain diagnostic value for NAFLD (AUC=0.876, 0.824, 0.847, P<0.01). Conclusion Transient elastography technology and ARFI technology can be used for the disease grading of NAFLD, and have good prospects for clinical diagnosis of NAFLD.

Key words: non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, transient elastography technology, acoustic radiation force pulse imaging technology, quantitative evaluation