Abstract: Objective The aim of this study was to investigate sound touch elastography (STE) in predicting liver fibrosis (LF) in patients with chronic hepatitis B (CHB). Methods 79 patients with CHB were recruited in our hospital between January 2021 and March 2024, and all of them underwent liver biopsy. Liver stiffness measurement (LSM) was obtained by STE. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was applied to evaluate diagnostic performance of LSM in predicting significant LF. Results Of 79 patients with CHB, liver histo-pathological examination showed S0 in 17 cases, S1 in 30 cases, S2 in 15 cases, S3 in 10 cases and S4 in 7 cases; serum ALT and AST levels in patients with S2/S3 were much higher than in patients with S0/S1 (P<0.05); LSM in patients with SO, S1, S2, S3 and S4 were (6.3±0.5)kPa, (7.7±1.2)kPa, (8.9±1.4)kPa, (11.3±1.0)kPa and (15.7±1.2)kPa, suggesting gradually increasing trend; the AUC was 0.974 (95%CI:0.912-0.996), with sensitivity of 97.1%, specificity of 85.1% and accuracy of 94.6%, when LSM=8.3 kPa was set as cut-off-value in predicting significant LF (defined as >=S2). Conclusion STE technique could be used in predicting LF in patients with CHB, which might add more measures for early diagnosis.

Key words: Hepatitis B, Liver fibrosis, Sound touch elastography, Liver biopsy, Diagnosis