Abstract: Objective The aim of this study was to explore the diagnostic performance of ultrasound elastography (UE) in evaluation of liver fibrosis in patients with autoimmune hepatitis (AIH). Methods 58 patients with AIH were encountered in our hospital between March 2017 and March 2022, and all patients received liver biopsy and UE scan for detection of the shear wave velocity (SWV). The aspartate aminotransferase to platelet ratio index (APRI) was obtained. The diagnostic efficacy was evaluated by the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC). Results The liver histopathological examination showed that out of the 58 patients with AIH, there were 7 cases in liver fibrosis stage F0 (12.1%), 15 cases in F1 (25.9%), 17 cases in F2 (29.3%), 13 cases in F3 (22.4%) and 6 cases in F4 (10.3%), e.g., 22 cases (37.9%) without or with mild liver fibrosis, and 36 cases (62.1%) with significant liver fibrosis (SLF); the platelet count in patients with SLF was (119.7±26.4)×10⁹/L, significantly lower than [(180.9±31.2)×10⁹/L, P<0.05], the APRI was (3.6±1.1), significantly higher than [(2.7±0.8), P<0.05] and the SWV was (1.7±0.3)m/s, significantly higher than [(1.2±0.2)m/s, P<0.05] in patients without or with mild liver fibrosis; the AUCs were 0.74, 0.75 and 0.95, respectively, with the sensitivities of 66.7%, 75.0% and 91.7%, and the specificities of 77.3%, 68.2% and 86.4%, when the PLT count <120.0×10⁹/L, the APRI≥3.0 and the SWV≥1.6 m/s were set as the cut-off-value, in predicting SLF in patients with AIH, superior by SWV among them (P<0.05).Conclusion The application of UE scan for SWV detection is helpful for liver fibrosis staging in patients with AIH, and is expected to become an important non-invasive quantitative diagnostic parameter for liver fibrosis determination.

Key words: Autoimmune hepatitis, Liver fibrosis, Ultrasound elastography, Shear wave velocity, Diagnosis