Chronic hepatitis is accompanied by progressive deposit of hepatic fibrosis, which
may lead to cirrhosis. Evaluation of liver fibrosis is, thus, of great clinical interest
and, up to now, has been assessed with liver biopsy. This work aims to evaluate a
new noninvasive device to quantify liver fibrosis: the shear elasticity probe or fibroscan.
This device is based on one-dimensional (1-D) transient elastography, a technique
that uses both ultrasound (US) (5 MHz) and low-frequency (50 Hz) elastic waves, whose
propagation velocity is directly related to elasticity. The intra- and interoperator
reproducibility of the technique, as well as its ability to quantify liver fibrosis,
were evaluated in 106 patients with chronic hepatitis C. Liver elasticity measurements
were reproducible (standardized coefficient of variation: 3%), operator-independent
and well correlated (partial correlation coefficient = 0.71, p < < 0.0001) to fibrosis
grade (METAVIR). The areas under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves
were 0.88 and 0.99 for the diagnosis of patients with significant fibrosis (>/= F2)
and with cirrhosis ( = F4), respectively. The Fibroscan is a noninvasive, painless,
rapid and objective method to quantify liver fibrosis.