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Diagnostic value of spleen stiffness by magnetic resonance elastography for prediction of esophageal varices in cirrhotic patients

  • Special Section: Diffuse Liver Disease
  • Published:
Abdominal Radiology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose

To evaluate the diagnostic value of spleen stiffness (SS) via magnetic resonance elastography (MRE) in predicting esophageal varices.

Methods

From January 2016 to September 2018, we retrospectively reviewed 263 patients with esophagogastroduodenoscopy (EGD) records and available spleen and liver stiffness (LS) values from MRE. Clinical information including the underlying diseases, endoscopic grade of esophageal varices (EV) and laboratory data were collected from electronic medical records.

Results

In cirrhotic patients, MRE-SS was higher in those with EV than in those without. MRE-SS also showed significant association with EV in the multivariate analysis, whereas MRE-LS did not. The diagnostic performance of MRE-SS for EV in cirrhotic patients was demonstrated by the area under curve of 0.853 (cut-off value: 9.53 kPa, P < 0.001), 84.4% sensitivity and 73.7% specificity.

Conclusion

For prediction of EV in cirrhotic patients, MRE-SS is a useful non-invasive tool and it demonstrates better diagnostic performance than MRE-LS does.

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Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author, CTC. The data are not publicly available due to their containing information that could compromise the privacy of research participants.

Code availability

Not applicable.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Medical Imaging, Changhua Christian Hospital, No. 135, Nan-Hsiao Street, Changhua, 500, Taiwan

    Zih-En Jhang, Kuan-Lin Wu, Chia-Bang Chen & Chen-Te Chou

  2. Transplant Medicine and Surgery Research Center, Changhua Christian Hospital, Changhua, Taiwan

    Yao-Li Chen & Ping-Yi Lin

  3. Department of Nursing, Da-Yeh University, Changhua, Taiwan

    Ping-Yi Lin

  4. Department of Surgery, Changhua Christian Hospital, Changhua, Taiwan

    Yao-Li Chen & Ping-Yi Lin

  5. School of Medicine, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan

    Yao-Li Chen & Chen-Te Chou

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  1. Zih-En Jhang
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  2. Kuan-Lin Wu
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Correspondence to Chen-Te Chou.

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Jhang, ZE., Wu, KL., Chen, CB. et al. Diagnostic value of spleen stiffness by magnetic resonance elastography for prediction of esophageal varices in cirrhotic patients. Abdom Radiol 46, 526–533 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00261-020-02628-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00261-020-02628-x

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