Cirrhosis of Wilson’s disease: High and low cutoff using acoustic radiation force impulse (ARFI) -Comparison and combination with serum fibrosis index

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Acoustic Radiation Force Impulse (ARFI), Fibrosis-4(FIB-4) and Aspartate transaminase to platelet ratio index (APRI) are valuable non-invasive methods to evaluate fibrosis in hepatitis virus. Yet, they are rarely used in Wilson’s disease. OBJECTIVE: Evaluate the diagnostic efficacy of ARFI, FIB-4, APRI, combined detection in cirrhosis with WD, and speculate the optimal high, low cutoff. METHODS: This retrospective study was authorized by hospital ethics Committee (number:2021MCZQ02). 102 patients with WD completed ARFI and laboratory examination on the same day. The intraclass correlation coeffcient (ICC) of ARFI among three sonographers was 0.896 (95%CI:0.859–0.925, p = 0.000). The stage of liver involvement was classified into 5 categories according to clinical manifestations, laboratory examination, and liver morphologic characteristics: I, normal; II, biochemical abnormal only; III, abnormal liver morphologic features without sighs of cirrhosis; IV, clinical and imaging sighs of compensateded cirrhosis (Child-Pugh A); V, decompensated cirrhosis (Child-Pugh B and C). This stage system served as the reference standard. The diagnostic efficacy was analyzed by Logistic regression, ROC curve. The optimal low cut-off with high sensitivity (SE) and low negative likelihood ratio (NLR) and high cut-off with high specificity (SP) and positive likelihood ratio (PLR) were derived. RESULTS: The diagnostic value of ARFI (0.85, 95%CI:0.77–0.92, p = 0.000) in distiguishing cirrhosis with WD was higher than FIB-4 (0.59, 95%CI: 0.47–0.70, p = 0.127), APRI (0.70, 95%CI: 0.59–0.81, p = 0.000). The low, high cut-off of ARFI for excluding, diagnosing cirrhosis with WD was 1.47 m/s(SE: 98%, NLR:0.09), 2.11 m/s(SP:98%, PLR:27.4), 37 (36%) patients could be spared a liver biopsy. When ARFI was 1.47∼2.11 m/s, liver biopsy was recommended. After combined with ARFI, the AUROC of FIB-4, APRI were increased respectively (p < 0.001), there were not different between ARFI and combined detection(p >  0.05). CONCLUSION: ARFI could replace some unnecessary liver biopsy according to high diagnostic efficacy for identifying cirrhosis of WD. The combined detection can also be used as an important model to predict cirrhosis in WD.