A sequential approach using the age-adjusted fibrosis-4 index and vibration-controlled transient elastography to detect advanced fibrosis in Korean patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease

Optimal cut-offs of vibration-controlled transient elastography and magnetic resonance elastography in diagnosing advanced liver fibrosis in patients with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease: A systematic review and meta-analysis

BACKGROUND/AIMS

Opinions differ regarding vibration-controlled transient elastography and magnetic resonance elastography (VCTE/MRE) cut-offs for diagnosing advanced fibrosis (AF) in patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). We investigated the diagnostic performance and optimal cut-off values of VCTE and MRE for diagnosing AF.

METHODS

Literature databases, including Medline, EMBASE, Cochrane Library, and KoreaMed, were used to identify relevant studies published up to June 13, 2023. We selected studies evaluating VCTE and MRE regarding the degree of liver fibrosis using liver biopsy as the reference. The sensitivity, specificity, and area under receiver operating characteristics curves (AUCs) of the pooled data for VCTE and MRE for each fibrosis stage and optimal cut-offs for AF were investigated.

RESULTS

A total of 19,199 patients from 63 studies using VCTE showed diagnostic AUC of 0.83 (95% confidence interval: 0.80-0.86), 0.83 (0.80-0.86), 0.87 (0.84-0.90), and 0.94 (0.91-0.96) for ≥F1, ≥F2, ≥F3, and F4 stages, respectively. Similarly, 1,484 patients from 14 studies using MRE showed diagnostic AUC of 0.89 (0.86-0.92), 0.92 (0.89-0.94), 0.89 (0.86-0.92), and 0.94 (0.91-0.96) for ≥F1, ≥F2, ≥F3, and F4 stages, respectively. The diagnostic AUC for AF using VCTE was highest at 0.90 with a cut-off of 7.1-7.9 kPa, and that of MRE was highest at 0.94 with a cut-off of 3.62-3.8 kPa.

CONCLUSION

VCTE (7.1-7.9 kPa) and MRE (3.62-3.8 kPa) with the suggested cut-offs showed favorable accuracy for diagnosing AF in patients with NAFLD. This result will serve as a basis for clinical guidelines for non-invasive tests and differential diagnosis of AF.

Steatotic liver disease predicts cardiovascular disease and advanced liver fibrosis: A community-dwelling cohort study with 20-year follow-up

BACKGROUND

Steatotic liver disease (SLD) has emerged as new nomenclature to increase awareness and reflect the pathophysiology of the disease better. We investigated the risk of advanced fibrosis and cardiovascular disease (CVD) in SLD using data derived from a Korean prospective cohort.

METHODS

We defined SLD using the fatty liver index (FLI) and identified advanced fibrosis with the age-adjusted Fibrosis-4 Index. SLD was further subcategorized into metabolic dysfunction-associated SLD (MASLD), MASLD with increased alcohol intake (MetALD), and alcohol-associated liver disease (ALD).

FINDINGS

The Ansung-Ansan cohort of the Korean Genome and Epidemiology study, following 9497 participants from 2002 to 2020, included 3642 (38.3%) with MASLD, 424 (4.5%) with MetALD, and 207 (2.1%) with ALD. During the median follow-up of 17.5 years, CVD risk was higher in those with MASLD (hazard ratio [HR], 1.27; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.12-1.45; P < 0.001), MetALD (HR, 1.88; 95% CI, 1.33-2.65; P < 0.001), and ALD (HR, 1.95; 95% CI, 1.01-3.77; P < 0.001) than in those without SLD, after adjusting for conventional risk factors. Notably, CVD risk was higher in the MetALD than in the MASLD group (P = 0.027). In the MASLD group, the number of cardiometabolic risk factors (CMRFs) correlated positively with CVD risk (HR, 1.34; 95% CI, 1.24-1.45; P < 0.001 for trend). Among the CMRFs, hypertension (HR, 1.94; 95% CI, 1.63-2.31; P < 0.001) was the predominant contributor to CVD. The MASLD (HR, 1.39; 95% CI, 1.25-1.55; P < 0.001), MetALD (HR, 1.75; 95% CI, 1.38-2.23; P < 0.001), and ALD (HR, 2.00; 95% CI, 1.30-3.07; P = 0.002) groups had a higher risk of advanced fibrosis than did the non-SLD group (P < 0.001 for trend).

INTERPRETATION

Our study provides new insight into hepatic and cardiovascular outcomes related to SLD subtypes. The risk of CVD increased in the order of no SLD, MASLD, and MetALD. The SLD subcategories, considering CMRFs and alcohol intake, outperformed traditional fatty liver categorizations in predicting CVD risk. The proposed SLD terminology could impact clinical practice, warranting further exploration of the heterogeneity of clinical outcomes among SLD subtypes.

Imaging-based noninvasive liver disease assessment for staging liver fibrosis in chronic liver disease: A systematic review supporting the AASLD Practice Guideline

BACKGROUND AND AIMS

Transient elastography (TE), shear wave elastography, and/or magnetic resonance elastography (MRE), each providing liver stiffness measurement (LSM), are the most studied imaging-based noninvasive liver disease assessment (NILDA) techniques. To support the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases guidelines on NILDA, we summarized the evidence on the accuracy of these LSM methods to stage liver fibrosis (F).

APPROACH AND RESULTS

A comprehensive search for studies assessing LSM by TE, shear wave elastography, or MRE for the identification of significant fibrosis (F2-4), advanced fibrosis (F3-4), or cirrhosis (F4), using histopathology as the standard of reference by liver disease etiology in adults or children from inception to April 2022 was performed. We excluded studies with <50 patients with a single disease entity and mixed liver disease etiologies (with the exception of HCV/HIV coinfection). Out of 9447 studies, 240 with 61,193 patients were included in this systematic review. In adults, sensitivities for the identification of F2-4 ranged from 51% to 95%, for F3-4 from 70% to 100%, and for F4 from 60% to 100% across all techniques/diseases, whereas specificities ranged from 36% to 100%, 74% to 100%, and 67% to 99%, respectively. The largest body of evidence available was for TE; MRE appeared to be the most accurate method. Imaging-based NILDA outperformed blood-based NILDA in most comparisons, particularly for the identification of F3-4/F4. In the pediatric population, imaging-based NILDA is likely as accurate as in adults.

CONCLUSIONS

LSM from TE, shear wave elastography, and MRE shows acceptable to outstanding accuracy for the detection of liver fibrosis across various liver disease etiologies. Accuracy increased from F2-4 to F3-4 and was the highest for F4. Further research is needed to better standardize the use of imaging-based NILDA, particularly in pediatric liver diseases.