Gravity assistance enables liver stiffness measurements to detect liver fibrosis under congestive circumstances

Figure 1 Body position effects on liver stiffness. A: Two-dimensional shear wave elastography (2dSWE) values that were measured in the supine and left decubitus positions revealed a significant positive correlation (P < 0.0001, r = 0.68). The black continuous and dotted lines reveal the best hit and 95% confidence band in the equation of least squares; B: The cases in which 2dSWE increased or decreased in association with changing body positions beyond the magnitude of robust coefficient of variation can be classified into 3 groups: normal 2dSWE (Normal-to-Hard: NH) or abnormal 2dSWE that increased (Hard-to-Hard: HH) or decreased (Hard-to-Soft: HS) in the left decubitus position. The difference in 2dSWE between supine and left decubitus positions (supine - left decubitus) was negative in NH (-0.23 ± 0.15 m/sec) and HH (-0.25 ± 0.14 m/sec) but was positive in HS (0.21 ± 0.12 m/sec); C: The cardiothoracic ratio was not significantly different between the patients with abnormal 2dSWE in the supine position that further hardened or softened in the left decubitus position (P = 0.51, 47.3 ± 8.0 vs 45.7 ± 6.1%). The horizontal bars in B and C indicate the average (“Bold”) and standard deviation. 2dSWE: Two-dimensional shear wave elastography; HH: Hard-to-Hard; NH: Normal-to-Hard; HS: Hard-to-Soft.