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Reliability and stability of ultrasound-guided attenuation parameter in evaluating hepatic steatosis

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Abstract

Purpose

This study aimed to explore the reliability and stability of ultrasound-guided attenuation parameter (UGAP) values obtained by two measuring methods and different measuring times.

Methods

Patients who underwent liver UGAP examinations in our hospital from September 2022 to December 2022 were retrospectively analyzed. The clinical data and UGAP measurements results were collected. Two different measuring methods: static single-frame multi-point measuring and dynamic multi-frame single-point measuring, were performed for each patient, and 10 UGAP values of each measuring method were recorded. The medians of the UGAP values of the 1st–3rd, 1st–5th, 1st–7th and 1st–10th by each measuring method were taken as the final UGAP values of measuring 3, 5, 7 and 10 times. The UGAP values obtained by the two different measuring methods and different measuring times (3, 5, 7 or 10 times) were compared.

Results

206 patients were included in this study. There was no statistical difference between UGAP values measured by static single-frame multi-point measuring and dynamic multi-frame single-point measuring (P = 0.689, P = 0.270, P = 0.298, P = 0.091), regardless of measuring times (3, 5, 7, 10 times). No significant difference between the UGAP values obtained by 3, 5, 7 and 10 measurements was found (P = 0.554, P = 0.916).

Conclusion

The UGAP values obtained by the two different measuring methods and different measuring times (3, 5, 7 and 10 times) are stable and reliable. Additionally, 3 times of UGAP measurements might be enough for each patient in clinical practice.

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Data availability

No data have been fabricated or manipulated (including images) to support the conclusions. No data, text, or theories by others are presented as if they are the author's own. All co-authors have contributed sufficiently to the scientific work.

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Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (82272011), the Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province, China (2022A1515012155), the Shenzhen Science and Technology Program (JCYJ20220530160208018), and the Futian Healthcare Research Project (FTWS2020022, FTWS2021071).

Author information

Author notes

  1. Xiaodan Zhang and Liping Luo contributed equally to this work and are co-first authors.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Medical Ultrasonics, The Eighth Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, No. 3025, Shennanzhong Road, Shenzhen, 518033, China

    Xiaodan Zhang, Liping Luo, Huahui Liu, Shuang Liang & Erjiao Xu

Authors
  1. Xiaodan Zhang
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  2. Liping Luo
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  3. Huahui Liu
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  4. Shuang Liang
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  5. Erjiao Xu
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection were performed by XZ and LL. Data analysis was performed by HL and SL. The first draft of the manuscript was written by XZ and LL. All authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Erjiao Xu.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

The authors have no relevant financial or non-financial interests to disclose.

Ethical approval

This study was performed in line with the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki. Approval was granted by the Ethics Committee of the Eighth Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University (Date: 21 June 2023/No. 2023–042-01).

Informed consent

Informed consent was waived by the Ethics Committee of the Eighth Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University in view of the retrospective nature of the study and all the procedures being performed were part of the routine care.

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The manuscript has not been submitted elsewhere. The manuscript has not been published previously (partly or in full). It has not been split up into several parts and submitted to various journals or to one journal over time.

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Zhang, X., Luo, L., Liu, H. et al. Reliability and stability of ultrasound-guided attenuation parameter in evaluating hepatic steatosis. J Ultrasound 27, 145–152 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40477-023-00856-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40477-023-00856-7

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