Chronic viral hepatitis is a major cause of chronic liver disease leading to liver fibrosis. This study aimed to assess the diagnostic performance of elastography point quantification (ElastPQ), transient elastography (TE), and aspartate aminotransferase-to-platelet count ratio index (APRI) for the staging of liver fibrosis in patients with chronic viral hepatitis using histopathological findings as a reference standard. For 122 patients with chronic viral hepatitis, diagnostic performance was evaluated using area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC) analysis and correlations were determined using Spearman’s correlation coefficient. The AUROC of ElastPQ for the diagnosis of the fibrosis stage ≥ F2 was 0.917 with a cut-off value of 3.935. There was a significant positive correlation between the different stages of histologic liver fibrosis and stiffness values obtained using ElastPQ, TE, and APRI (ρ = 0.556, ρ = 0.657, ρ = 0.375, respectively; p < 0.001). ElastPQ showed a higher diagnostic accuracy than APRI, resembling that of TE; AUROC values of ElastPQ, TE, and APRI were 0.917, 0.964, and 0.896, respectively, for a fibrosis stage ≥ F2. ElastPQ is a promising noninvasive technique with a diagnostic accuracy comparable with that of TE for the evaluation of liver fibrosis in patients with chronic viral hepatitis.
Keywords: chronic viral hepatitis; elastography point quantification (ElastPQ); liver fibrosis staging; liver stiffness measurement; shear wave elastography.