A 69-year-old male complained of general fatigue and presented with elevation of liver enzymes without any cause of liver injury. We diagnosed him with hepatocellular drug-induced liver injury (DILI). Liver stiffness, which was evaluated according to the shear wave velocity (SWV) using virtual touch tissue quantification, was serially observed during hospitalization. A fast SWV was noted on the date of admission, indicating a "hard" degree of liver stiffness. The SWV gradually decreased until the 20th hospital day. However, the patient's liver enzymes again became elevated on the 20th hospital day, and the SWV simultaneously increased in association with a rise in the total bilirubin level. The laboratory data for the second peak of the SWV indicated mixed-type DILI; therefore, the patient's pathological state transitioned from the hepatocellular type to the mixed type. A liver biopsy performed before discharge revealed a state of recovery from acute inflammation without fibrotic changes. We conclude that the second peak of the SWV may be affected by the presence of intrahepatic cholestasis. We herein report the occurrence of bimodal peaks of liver stiffness in a patient with DILI. In such cases, each peak of liver stiffness may be the result of a different pathological mechanism, namely acute inflammation versus acute intrahepatic cholestasis. Although the detailed mechanisms underlying the development of liver stiffness due to intrahepatic cholestasis remain unclear, this case presented a limitation of virtual touch tissue quantification for evaluation of liver stiffness as fibrosis marker in the liver with intrahepatic cholestasis.
Keywords: acoustic radiation force impulse intrahepatic cholestasis; shear wave velocity; virtual touch tissue quantification.
© 2014 The Japan Society of Hepatology.