A Novel Non-invasive Method for Predicting Liver Fibrosis by Quantifying the Hepatic Vein Waveform

Abstract The hepatic vein(HV) waveform by Doppler ultrasound reflects the severity of liver fibrosis. We conducted a proof-of-concept study of a new method for quantifying the HV waveform. We calculated the coefficient of variation (CV) of the HV flow velocityand created a new index “q-HV” (quantified HV) and analyzed its performance for predicting histologic liver fibrosisin 114 patients with chronic liver disease. The CV of the HV flow velocitywas well associated with flattening of the waveform and the q-HV significantly increased with the progression of liver fibrosis. The areas underthe curvefor the prediction of fibrosisstage were 0.732 for F2, 0.772 for F3 and 0.805 for F4. Combined q-HV and FIB-4 index (widely used liver fibrosisscore) increased the diagnostic accuracy for liver fibrosis. The q-HV showed good accuracy for predicting liver fibrosis; thus, q-HV is feasible and acceptable as a non-invasive tool for predicting liver fibrosis.