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SuperSonic Imagine liver fibrosis study completes enrollment

SuperSonic Imagine announced completion of enrollment for a large prospective multicenter liver study in China. The company seeks to evaluate the performance of its real-time ShearWave Elastography for the non-invasive assessment of liver fibrosis in patients with chronic hepatitis B infection.

ShearWave Elastography (SWE) is an exam that provides a quantitative color coded map to visualize and quantify tissue stiffness during examination. Stiffness increases with the severity of liver fibrosis, making it a key parameter for physicians to assess the severity of liver fibrosis.

“We are committed to improving the lives of patients with liver fibrosis as a result of hepatitis B infection and are pleased to have completed enrollment in this key study,” Jacques Souquet, Supersonic Imagine’s founder and chief innovation officer, said in a press release, “Our ShearWave Elastography exam offers clinicians a non-invasive option that has demonstrated its value to help with the assessment of liver disease and clinical management of patients in several clinical publications. This prospective multicenter study in China will be a major step forward in the confirmation of this clinical value.”

The study has been conducted in 14 locations across China. Each of the 400 hepatitis B patients enrolled have received an ultrasound exam, including SWE, to measure liver stiffness and guide liver biopsy. In addition, all patients have had a blood test analysis. The next step is to analyze the outcome of these exams and evaluate the correlation between SWE measurements and liver fibrosis. Ultimately, this will lead to the assessment of the diagnostic performance of SWE.

“This study will provide new insights on ultrasound liver elasticity measurement and will help in evaluating the severity of intermediate stages of chronic liver fibrosis, which is key for effective treatment and management,” Professor Ping Liang, of the People’s Liberation Army Hospital and study investigator, said in the release.