Shear wave elastography: interobserver agreement and influencing factors for liver stiffness measurement

Purpose: To evaluate the interobserver reproducibility of 2-dimensional shear wave elastography (2D-SWE) in measuring liver stiffness and to investigate the clinical and measurement factors related to the reproducibility. Material and methods: This study used the cohort of rheumatoid arthritis patients who have been treated with methotrexate and were enrolled under informed consent between August 2011 and August 2012. Two staff radiologists performed SWE by turns at the same day. The measurement was repeated 5 times, and the median value was considered as the liver stiffness. We investigated clinical factors suc…