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ARFI accurate for detection of HCV post-liver transplant
In a prospective study, researchers in Italy found acoustic radiation force impulse was more accurate for detecting hepatitis C virus infection positivity in liver transplant recipients vs. Fibrotest, according to published findings.
“Noninvasive tools for the assessment of liver fibrosis and fibrogenesis are much needed. Among the current adopted methods to noninvasively assess liver fibrosis progression after [liver transplantation], indirect tests based on the combinations of several biochemical parameters and imaging techniques are more frequently employed; … [therefore, we aimed to assess] the accuracy of [acoustic radiation force impulse] in discriminating HCV-positive liver transplanted patients with different graft fibrosis severity,” the researchers wrote.
Fifty-one liver transplant (LT) recipients with HCV underwent liver biopsy associated with acoustic radiation force impulse (ARFI) from October 2011 to April 2014 at the Medical Liver Transplant Unit at the University of Udine, Italy, to determine graft status post-LT. ARFI was performed twice and area under the curve (AUC) data was compared.
Overall, ARFI had an AUC of 0.885 in discriminating between patients with and without fibrosis when stratified by Ishak Score (0-2 vs. 3-6) compared with Fibrotest, which had an AUC of 0.848.
ARFI had a 100% negative predictive value for identifying patients without significant fibrosis compared with 93.7% by Fibrotest.
ARFI and Fibrotest results together did not improve overall results compared with ARFI alone, according to the research.
“ARFI measurement in HCV-positive liver transplanted patients can be considered an easy and accurate noninvasive tool in identifying patients with a benign course of HCV recurrence,” the researchers concluded. – by Melinda Stevens
Disclosure: Healio.com/Hepatology was unable to confirm relevant financial disclosures at the time of publication.