West China Hospital, Sichuan University

Variceal bleeding is a fatal complication in patients with liver cirrhosis. A screening esophagogastroduodenoscopy (EGD) is recommended in all patients with cirrhosis to identify those patients at risk of variceal bleeding. However, this technique is invasive, uncomfortable and costly. Moreover, with the development of noninvasive technology for early diagnosis of liver cirrhosis, half of these patients will not develop varices within 10 years and therefore will undergo unnecessary EGD screening. Thus, the need for noninvasive screening methods for varices in patients with cirrhosis is urgent.

2D-SWE is a promising new type of shear wave-based ultrasound technique for measuring LS. The shear waves are generated directly within the tissue by acoustic radiation force impulse, allowing the measurement of stiffness in patients with ascites. In addition, the LS values can be obtained on the basis of anatomic information to avoid major vessels and control major measurement bias. 2D-SWE has been reported to have high reliability and reproducibility in assessing liver stiffness. Several studies compared TE with 2D-SWE in predicting fibrosis stages and portal hypertension, which suggested that 2D-SWE has a higher technical success rate and a better diagnostic value for portal hypertension than TE.The purpose of this retrospective study was to investigate the diagnostic performance of 2D-SWE for predicting the presence of esophageal varices and high-risk varices in patients with liver cirrhosis.