2-dimensional shear wave elastography: Interobserver agreement and factors related to interobserver discrepancy

• Published in: PloS one 2017-04, Vol.12 (4), p.e0175747
• Main Authors: Yoon, Kibo, Jeong, Woo Kyoung, Kim, Yongsoo, Kim, Min Yeong, Kim, Tae Yeob, Sohn, Joo Hyun
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adult; Aged; Alanine; Alanine transaminase; Analysis; Arthritis; Biology and Life Sciences; Body mass; Body mass index; Cholesterol; Correlation coefficient; Correlation coefficients; Cut-off; Diagnostic imaging; Dimensional measurement; Discordance; Elasticity; Elasticity Imaging Techniques - methods; Elasticity Imaging Techniques - statistics & numerical data; Female; Fibrosis; Hepatitis; Hepatology; Hospitals; Humans; Internal medicine; Liver; Liver - diagnostic imaging; Liver - pathology; Liver - physiopathology; Liver Cirrhosis - diagnostic imaging; Liver Cirrhosis - pathology; Liver Cirrhosis - physiopathology; Liver diseases; Male; Medicine; Medicine and Health Sciences; Methotrexate; Middle Aged; Multivariate analysis; Observer Variation; Patient compliance; Patients; Physical Sciences; Prospective Studies; Regression analysis; Reproducibility; Reproducibility of Results; Research and Analysis Methods; Rheumatoid arthritis; Stiffness; Transaminase; Ultrasonic imaging
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0175747

To evaluate the interobserver reproducibility of two-dimensional shear wave elastography (2D-SWE) in measuring liver stiffness (LS) and to investigate factors related to liver 2D-SWE. A prospective study was conducted between August 2011 and August 2012 in rheumatoid arthritis patients who had been treated with methotrexate. Interobserver reproducibility of 2D-SWE was evaluated, and the relationship between interobserver difference in LS and related factors was analyzed using linear regression analyses. We considered age, sex, alanine transaminase, cholesterol, body mass index (BMI), and waist circumference as clinical factors, and the mean value of standard deviation (SDM), its difference between two examiners, mean diameter of the regions of interest (ROIM), and its difference in the elasticity map as investigation factors. The cut-off value for significant factors to predict interobserver discrepancies in LS-based fibrosis stage was also inspected. In total, 176 patients were enrolled. The intraclass correlation coefficient between the two examiners was 0.784. In the univariate analysis, SDM and ROIM were independently associated with interobserver differences in LS as well as BMI, waist circumference, and the difference of ROI, but SDM and ROIM were the only ones significantly related in multivariate analysis (p