This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
3-D MRE more accurate for detecting advanced fibrosis in NAFLD vs. 2-D MRE
In a cross-sectional analysis of a prospective study, 3-D magnetic resonance elastography at 40 Hz was more accurate in diagnosing advanced fibrosis in patients with biopsy-proven nonalcoholic fatty liver disease compared with 2-D magnetic resonance elastography at 60 Hz.
“[This is the] first prospective study to show the diagnostic accuracy of [3-D magnetic resonance elastography] at various frequencies in patients with NAFLD who have a clinical indication for a liver biopsy … [this is also the] first head to head comparative study comparing [2-D magnetic resonance elastography] vs. [3-D magnetic resonance elastography],” Rohit Loomba, MD, MHSc, professor of medicine in the division of gastroenterology, University of California San Diego School of Medicine, and colleagues wrote.
Rohit Loomba, MD, MHSc
Researchers evaluated 100 consecutive patients (56.% women; mean age, 50.2 years; mean BMI, 32.1 kg/m2) with biopsy-proven NAFLD who underwent magnetic resonance elastography (MRE). They also conducted an area under the receiver operating characteristic (AUROC) analysis to measure the accuracy of 2-D and 3-D MRE in diagnosing advanced fibrosis.
3-D MRE at 40 Hz showed the most accurate AUROC for diagnosing advanced fibrosis (0.981) compared with 3-D MRE at 60 Hz (0.927) and 2-D MRE at 60 Hz (0.921). The 3-D MRE at 40 Hz had significantly higher AUROC (P < .05) compared with 2-D MRE at 60 Hz for the diagnosis of advanced fibrosis.
“The evidence that MRE performed at a lower shear-wave frequency of 40 Hz may provide increased diagnostic performance provides motivation for further investigation of this issue,” the researchers wrote.
At a threshold of 2.43 kPa, 3-D MRE at 40 Hz showed a sensitivity of 1, specificity of 0.94, positive predictive value of 0.72 and negative predictive value of 1 for the diagnosis of advanced fibrosis.
The researchers concluded: “We demonstrate that 3-D MRE at 40 Hz has the highest diagnostic accuracy in diagnosing NAFLD advanced fibrosis. Both 2-D and 3-D MRE at 60 Hz, the standard shear-wave frequency, are also highly accurate in diagnosing NAFLD advanced fibrosis.” – by Melinda Stevens
Disclosure: Loomba reports no relevant financial disclosures. Please see the full study for a list of all other researchers’ relevant financial disclosures.