Abstract: Objective The aim of this study was to evaluate the diagnostic efficacy of spot quantitative elastography (ElastPQ) by sonography for hepatic fibrosis in patients with autoimmune liver disease (AILD). Methods 58 patients with autoimmune hepatitis (AIH) and 46 patients with primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC) were admitted to our hospital, and all of them received sonography for ElastPQ detection. Serum parameters were obtained for aspartate aminotransferase to platelet ratio index (APRI) and fibrosis factors-four (FIB-4) calculation. The receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) was drawn and the area under the curve (AUC) were calculated for diagnostic sensitivity (Se), specificity (Sp) and accuracy (Ac). Results There were significantly differences in serum ALT, AST, ALP and GGT levels between patients with AIH and PBC(P<0.05); the ElastPQ in patients with AIH was (5.8±0.9)kPa, significantly lower than 【(7.1±1.2)kPa, P<0.05】, while there were no significantly differences with respect to APRI【1.6(1.1,2.3)vs. 1.7(1.4,2.0)】 and FIB-4【2.8(1.8, 3.5) vs. 2.6(1.9, 3.2), P>0.05】 between the two groups; we set the ElastPQ equal to or greater than 6.09 kPa as the cut-off-value, the Se, Sp and Ac in predicting liver fibrosis ≥F3 in patients with PBC were 99.7%, 80.9% and 91.8%, while the diagnostic efficacy was relatively low in patients with AIH. Conclusions The application of ElastPQ is helpful in diagnosis of hepatic fibrosis in patients with PBC, which warrants further investigation.

Key words: Autoimmune hepatitis, Primary biliary cirrhosis, Elastography point quantification, Hepatic fibrosis, Diagnosis