In their study, Dr. Amol Shah and colleagues assessed the shear-wave velocities (SWVs) of patients with known hepatic cirrhosis, comparing each patient's value with the cutoff measurement for advanced fibrosis established by recent SRU guidelines (> 2.2 m/sec).
The researchers included 82 patients with known cirrhosis from two academic centers. All patients underwent acoustic radiation force impulse shear-wave elastography. For each exam, the team noted 10 shear-wave velocity measurements; the median was considered the final velocity.
The measurements ranged from 1.17 m/sec to 2.66 m/sec, with the majority of patients (89%) showing a shear-wave velocity less than the SRU cutoff; in fact, only nine patients (11%) met the SWV measure guidelines.
The guidelines need to be reconsidered, the researchers noted.
"The current SRU cutoff of SWV > 2.2 m/sec [misses] the majority of patients with advanced fibrosis (including cirrhosis) and, thus, revision of these guidelines may be necessary in the near future," they concluded.
