Fast, Noninvasive Assessment of Chronic Liver Disease Announced as Alternative to Biopsies

A large-scale global multicenter retrospective study that took place in April 2015, and involved 1,340 participants, confirmed the accuracy of the technology as a noninvasive alternative to biopsy for staging liver fibrosis. The study evaluated several liver diseases including chronic Hepatitis B, chronic Hepatitis C, and Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD).

The ShearWave Elastography (SWE) technology was developed by SuperSonic Imagine (Aix-en-Provence, France). The technology involves an exam that takes 60-seconds, and provides a quantitative color-coded map that visualizes and analyzes tissue stiffness. The stiffness of liver increases as fibrosis becomes more severe, and this makes it a useful indicator for assessing the advancement of fibrosis. The standard test for assessing the severity of liver fibrosis has been biopsy, which can cause morbidity, is expensive, can result in the underestimation of fibrosis in 10%–30% of the cases, and is not ideal for repeated follow-up exams. SWE technology can significantly reduce the need for liver biopsies.

In the case of Hepatitis C patients for example, an initial assessment, a follow-up evaluation, and antiviral therapies could cure most cases of the disease, benefitting clinicians, patients, and hospitals.

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