Liver elastography, comments on EFSUMB elastography guidelines 2013

Table 1 Examples of studies

	Title	Comment	Ref.
Univariate approach
	Elastographic assessment of liver fibrosis in children: A prospective single center experience	Pearson’s correlation	[21]
	Is it better to use two elastographic methods for liver fibrosis assessment?	Spearman rank correlation	[22]
	Is ARFI elastography reliable for predicting fibrosis severity in chronic HCV hepatitis?	Spearman rank correlation	[23]
	Factors that influence the correlation of acoustic radiation force impulse, elastography with liver fibrosis	Spearman rank correlation	[24]
	Liver stiffness measurement using acoustic radiation force impulse elastography and effect of necroinflammation	Pearson product-moment correlation	[25]
Multivariate approach
	Liver stiffness measurements in patients with different stages of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease: Diagnostic performance and clinicopathological correlation	Spearman’s correlation (no attention paid to Bonferroni or alpha correction)	[26]
		6 factors (higher age, serum albumin, serum AST, serum cholesterol, diabetes mellitus, LSM), LSM is the only independent predictor of advanced fibrosis (odds ratio = 1.47, 95%CI: 1.23-1.77, P < 0.001)
	Assessment of liver fibrosis using transient elastography in patients with alcoholic liver disease	Spearman’s correlation (with Bonferroni test). In multivariate analysis including fibrosis, HAH, and steatosis, fibrosis was the only histological parameter significantly correlated with LSM	[27]
	FibroScan and ultrasonography in the prediction of hepatic fibrosis in patients with chronic viral hepatitis	Pearson correlation (no attention paid to Bonferroni or alpha correction)	[28]
		12 factors. Multivariate analysis showed that LSM positively correlates with hepatic fibrosis, necro-inflammatory activity and ultrasound scores
	Performance of unidimensional transient elastography in staging non-alcoholic steatohepatitis	Spearman’s correlation (no attention paid to Bonferroni or alpha correction)	[29]
		4 factors (fibrosis, ballooning, Lobular inflammation, steatosis). Multivariate analysis found fibrosis as the only factor influencing independently liver stiffness in NASH patients

LSM: Liver stiffness measurement; HAH: Hepatic abscess of hydatid origin; AST: Aspartate aminotransferase; NASH: Non-alcoholic steatohepatitis.