Abstract: Objective The aim of this study was to explore the diagnostic efficacy of shear wave elastography (SWE) by ultrasonography in predicting esophageal varices (EV) in patients with hepatitis B cirrhosis. Methods 89 patients with hepatitis B-induced liver cirrhosis were enrolled in our hospital between March 2018 and March 2021, and all patients underwent gastroscopy to find the occurrence of EV. SWE by ultrasonography was applied to detect the spleen maximum Young’ s modulus (Emax) and mean Young’ s modulus (Emean). The portal vein diameter (PVD), spleen thickness diameter (ST), spleen long diameter (SD) and spleen vein diameter (SVD) were obtained by Color Doppler ultrasound. The diagnostic efficacy was evaluated by the area under receiver operating characteristic curve(AUC). Results The gastroscopy found 53 cases with EV among the 89 cirrhotics in our series; there were significant differences respect to Child-Pugh class, serum albumin, prothrombin time international normalized rati, platelet counts and ascites between patients with and without EV(P<0.05); the Emax and Emean in patients with EV were (55.9±10.5)kPa and (38.9±9.2)kPa, significantly higher than [(45.2±7.3)kPa and (29.3±6.7)kPa, respectively, P<0.05], the PVD, ST, SD and SVD were 13.6±2.1)mm, (48.0±9.4)mm,(149.1±27.1)mm and (10.1±1.9)mm, significantly higher than [(11.5±1.8)mm,(36.9±8.7)mm, (119.8±24.9)mm and (7.8±1.7)mm, respectively, P<0.05] in patients without EV; the AUCs were 0.84 and 0.83 in predicting EV in patients with liver cirrhosis as the Emax and Emean equal to 53.2 kPa and 33.6 kPa were set as the cut-off-value, with the sensitivities and specificities of 66.0% and 88.9%, and 75.5% and 77.8%. Conclusion The spleen Emax and Emean measured by SWE could be used to diagnose the EV in patients with liver cirrhosis, which needs further clinical investigations.

Key words: Liver cirrhosis, Esophageal varices, Ultrasonography, Shear wave elastography, Spleen Young’ s modulus, Diagonsis