Abstract: Objective This study was aimed to investigate the clinical utility of transient elastic (TE) imaging for the detection and quantification of liver fibrosis (LF) in patients with alcoholic liver cirrhosis diagnosed by histopathology. Methods 68 patients with alcoholic liver diseases (ALD) were encountered in our hospital between January 2019 and January 2022, and all underwent ultrasound-guided liver biopsy and TE imaging detection for liver stiffness measurement (LSM) and spleen stiffness measurement (SSM). The consistency of diagnosis by two methods was evaluated by Kappa. Results Based on the LSM, the patients without or mild LF were found in 28 cases (41.2%), with significant LF in 19 cases (27.9%), with advanced LF in 13 cases (19.1%) and liver cirrhosis (LC) in 8 cases (11.8%); the liver histopathological examination showed LF S0, S1, S2, S3 and S4 in 15 cases(22.1%), 11 cases (16.2%), 20 cases (29.4%), 12 cases (17.6%) and 10 cases (14.7%); the LSM and SSM in 8 patients with LC proven by TE were (18.4±5.6)kPa and (22.6±4.6)kPa, significantly greater than [(10.7±3.3)kPa and (14.9±3.8)kPa, respectively, P<0.05] in 60 patients without LC; based on the gold criteria by histopathology, the sensitivity, specificity and accuracy by TE in predicting LC were 70.0%, 98.3% and 94.1%, with good consistency (Kappa=0.744). Conclusion The TE imaging technique, as a good non-invasive approach, could be utilized in clinical practice for early diagnosis of LF and/or LC, which might be helpful for clinicians making interventional strategy.

Key words: Liver cirrhosis, Alcoholic liver diseases, Transient elastic imaging, Liver biopsy, Diagnosis