A Reappraisal of the Diagnostic Performance of B-Mode Ultrasonography for Mild Liver Steatosis. The American journal of gastroenterology Lee, C. M., Yoon, E. L., Nakajima, A., Yoneda, M., Toyoda, H., Yasuda, S., Lee, J., Kim, M., Kang, B. K., Nguyen, M. H., Jun, D. W., Sumida, Y. 2022

Abstract

Previous studies have shown that ultrasonography has high specificity (80%-100%) but low sensitivity (50%-70%) in diagnosing fatty liver; sensitivity is especially low for mild steatosis. In this study, we aimed to reappraise the diagnostic performance of B-mode ultrasonography (B-USG) for fatty liver disease.We performed a retrospective, multinational, multicenter, cross-sectional, observational study (6 referral centers from 3 nations). We included 5,056 participants who underwent both B-USG and magnetic resonance proton density fat fraction (MRI-PDFF) within a 6-month period. The diagnostic performance of B-USG was compared with that of MRI-PDFF as a reference standard for fatty liver diagnosis, using sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values, diagnostic accuracy, and area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC).B-USG showed a sensitivity of 83.4%, specificity of 81.0%, and AUC of 0.822 in diagnosing mild liver steatosis (6.5% =MRI-PDFF =14%). The sensitivity, specificity, and AUC in diagnosing the presence of fatty liver disease (MRI-PDFF =6.5%) were 83.4%, 81.0%, and 0.822, respectively. The mean PDFF of B-USG-diagnosed nonfatty liver differed significantly from that of diagnosed mild liver steatosis (3.5% ± 2.8% vs 8.5% ± 5.0%, P < 0.001). The interinstitutional variability of B-USG in diagnosing fatty liver was similar in diagnostic accuracy among the 6 centers (range, 82.8%-88.6%, P = 0.416).B-USG was an effective, objective method to detect mild liver steatosis using MRI-PDFF as comparison, regardless of the etiologies and comorbidities.

View details for DOI 10.14309/ajg.0000000000002020

View details for PubMedID 36305695