Controlled attenuation parameter (CAP): a novel VCTE™ guided ultrasonic attenuation measurement for the evaluation of hepatic steatosis: preliminary study and validation in a cohort of patients with chronic liver disease from various causes

Ultrasound Med Biol. 2010 Nov;36(11):1825-35. doi: 10.1016/j.ultrasmedbio.2010.07.005. Epub 2010 Sep 27.

Abstract

There is a need for noninvasive methods to detect liver steatosis, which can be a factor of liver fibrosis progression. This work aims to evaluate a novel ultrasonic controlled attenuation parameter (CAP) devised to target, specifically, liver steatosis using a sophisticated process based on vibration control transient elastography (VCTE™). CAP was first validated as an estimate of ultrasonic attenuation at 3.5 MHz using Field II simulations and tissue-mimicking phantoms. Performance of the CAP was then appraised on 115 patients, taking the histological grade of steatosis as reference. CAP was significantly correlated to steatosis (Spearman ρ = 0.81, p < 10(-16)). Area under receiver operative characteristic (ROC) curve (AUC) was equal to 0.91 and 0.95 for the detection of more than 10% and 33% of steatosis, respectively. Furthermore, results show that CAP can efficiently separate several steatosis grades. These promising results suggest that CAP is a noninvasive, immediate, objective and efficient method to detect and quantify steatosis.

Publication types

  • Validation Study

MeSH terms

  • Algorithms
  • Area Under Curve
  • Chronic Disease
  • Cohort Studies
  • Disease Progression
  • Elasticity Imaging Techniques / methods*
  • Fatty Liver / diagnostic imaging*
  • Fatty Liver / etiology
  • Humans
  • Phantoms, Imaging
  • Pilot Projects
  • ROC Curve
  • Reproducibility of Results
  • Statistics, Nonparametric