Open AccessEvaluation of rat liver with ARFI elastography: In vivo and ex vivo study
Author(s) -
Guillermo Carbonell,
Juan de Dios Berná-Serna,
Lidia Oltra,
Carlos M. Martínez,
Nuria GarcíaCarrillo,
Florentina Guzmán-Aroca,
Francisco Salazar,
José Tudela,
Juan de Dios Berná-Mestre
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
plos one
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.99
H-Index - 332
ISSN - 1932-6203
DOI - 10.1371/journal.pone.0217297
Subject(s) - ex vivo , in vivo , elastography , transient elastography , ultrasound elastography , medicine , biomedical engineering , pathology , biology , radiology , ultrasound , biopsy , liver biopsy , microbiology and biotechnology
Objective The aim of this study was to compare in vivo vs ex vivo liver stiffness in rats with acoustic radiation force impulse (ARFI) elastography using the histological findings as the gold standard. Methods Eighteen male Wistar rats aged 16–18 months were divided into a control group (n = 6) and obese group (n = 12). Liver stiffness was measured with shear wave velocity (SWV) using the ARFI technique both in vivo and ex vivo . The degree of fibrosis, steatosis and liver inflammation was evaluated in the histological findings. Pearson’s correlation coefficient was applied to relate the SWV values to the histological parameters. Results The SWV values acquired in the ex vivo study were significantly lower than those obtained in vivo ( P < 0.004). A significantly higher correlation value between the degree of liver fibrosis and the ARFI elastography assessment was observed in the ex vivo study (r = 0.706, P < 0.002), than the in vivo study (r = 0.623, P < 0.05). Conclusion Assessment of liver stiffness using ARFI elastography yielded a significant correlation between SWV and liver fibrosis in both the in vivo and ex vivo experiments. We consider that by minimising the influence of possible sources of artefact we could improve the accuracy of the measurements acquired with ARFI.