Liver stiffness measured by two-dimensional shear-wave elastography predicts hepatic vein pressure gradient at high values in liver transplant candidates with advanced liver cirrhosis

• Published in: PloS one 2021-01, Vol.16 (1), p.e0244934-e0244934
• Main Authors: Frankova, Sona, Lunova, Mariia, Gottfriedova, Halima, Senkerikova, Renata, Neroldova, Magdalena, Kovac, Jozef, Kieslichova, Eva, Lanska, Vera, Urbanek, Petr, Spicak, Julius, Jirsa, Milan, Sperl, Jan
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Abdomen; Adult; Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Alcohol; Alcohol use; Analysis; Ascites; Biological markers; Biology and Life Sciences; Biomarkers; Biomarkers - blood; Biomedical materials; Blood; Blood & organ donations; Blood platelets; Care and treatment; Cirrhosis; Complications and side effects; Correlation; Correlation analysis; Czech Republic; Development and progression; Diagnosis; Drinking behavior; Elasticity - physiology; Elasticity Imaging Techniques - methods; Female; Fibrosis - pathology; Hepatic vein; Hepatic Veins - pathology; Hepatology; Humans; Hypertension; Hypertension, Portal - pathology; Interleukin 1 receptor antagonist; Interleukin 1 receptors; Interleukin 6; Laboratories; Linear Models; Liver; Liver - pathology; Liver cirrhosis; Liver Cirrhosis - pathology; Liver transplantation; Liver transplants; Male; Medicine; Medicine and Health Sciences; Mercury; Middle Aged; Osteopontin; Portal hypertension; Portal Pressure - physiology; Prospective Studies; Risk factors; Sensitivity and Specificity; Spleen; Stiffness; Subgroups; Thresholds; Tumor necrosis factor-α; Ultrasonic imaging; Vascular cell adhesion molecule 1; Veins & arteries; Venous Pressure - physiology
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0244934

Liver stiffness is a reliable non-invasive predictor of Hepatic Venous Pressure Gradient (HVPG) above 10 mm Hg. However, it failed to predict higher thresholds of HVPG. Our aim was to investigate whether liver stiffness and selected previously published non-invasive blood biomarkers could predict higher HVPG thresholds in liver transplant candidates without ongoing alcohol use. One hundred and nine liver transplant candidates with liver cirrhosis of various aetiologies underwent direct HVPG measurement, liver stiffness measurement by 2D shear-wave elastography (Aixplorer Multiwave, Supersonic Imagine, France) and assessment of blood HVPG biomarkers (osteopontin, VCAM-1, IL-6, TNF-α, IL-1ra/IL-1F3 and ELF score). The correlation between liver stiffness and HVPG was linear up to 30 mm Hg of HVPG (r = 0.765, p < 0.0001). The regression lines had similar slopes for HVPG values below and above 16 mm Hg (p > 0.05) and the correlation in patients with HVPG