Prof. Dr. Sporea loan. Digestive Disease Week. 2024.

•To evaluate the performance of a new ultrasound-based technique using Transient Elastography and Attenuation parameter implemented on the new LivTouch system for the non-invasive assessment of liver fibrosis and steatosis, using vibration-controlled transient elastography (VCTE) with the controlled attenuation parameter (CAP) as reference.

•We included 210 consecutive subjects with or without chronic hepatopathies in whom liver stiffness (LS) and hepatic steatosis (HS) were evaluated in the same session by means of 2 elastographic techniques:VCTE with CAP (FibroScan) and TE-LivTouch with Ultrasound Attenuation Parameter (UAP) (LivTouch).
•All elastographic measurements were performed according to guidelines.Reliable LS measurements for both techniques were defined as the median value of 10 measurements with an interquartile range (IQR) < 30%.

•Valid LS and HS measurements were obtained in all patients with both techniques. A positive moderate correlation was found between LS and HS measurements obtained by the two techniques (r = 0.62 for LS and r = 0.69 for HS).
•LS values obtained by TE-LivTouch were significantly higher than those obtained by VCTE (10.22 ± 6.18 kPa vs.8.63 ± 6.32 kPa, p = 0.004), while for HS values there were no significant differences between UAP with CAP (274.35 ± 48.85 dB/m vs 272.80 ± 61.05 dB/m, p = 0.61).
•The best TE-LivTouch cut-off values for predicting different stages of LS using VCTE as the reference were: for F ≥ 2: 8.46 kPa. AUC 0.90:for F ≥ 3: 10.51 kPa. AUC 0.91; for F = 4: 12.75kPa, AUC 0.94. The best UAP cut-off values for predicting different stages of HS using CAP as the reference were: S1: 240 dB/m. AUC 0.85: S2: 258 dB/m, AUC 0.85; S3: 280dB/m, AUC 0.83.

•The best TE-LivTouch cut-off values for predicting F ≥ 2, F ≥ 3 and F = 4 were 8.46,10.51 and 12.75 kPa while the best UAP cut-off values for predicting S1, S2 and S3 were 240, 258 and 280 dB/m.