The role of real-time elastography in the non-invasive assessment of fibrosis in diffuse hepatopathies

Aim: Ultrasound elastography was recently reported to offer supplemental information that appears to yield a better characterization of liver tissue. The principle of real-time elastography (RTE) is that tissue compression produces displacement within the tissue and that the strain is smaller in harder tissue as compared to softer tissue. The aim of the study was to analyze whether computer-enhanced dynamic analysis of RTE movies is able to better characterize the degree of fibrosis in chronic hepatic diseases. Material and methods: We included in this prospective study 97 consecutive patients examined in the Re…