Automatic assessment of Shear Wave Elastography quality and measurement reliability in the liver

Claire Pellot-Barakat (1) , Muriel Lefort (1) , Linda Chami (2) , Mickaël Labit (1) , Frédérique Frouin (1) , Olivier Lucidarme (3, 1)

1 LIB - Laboratoire d'Imagerie Biomédicale [Paris]
2 CHU Pitié-Salpêtrière [AP-HP]
3 AP-HP - Assistance publique - Hôpitaux de Paris (AP-HP)

A strategy is proposed to access the quality of individual shear wave elastography (SWE) exams and the reliability of elasticity measurements in clinical practice. For that purpose, a quality index based on temporal stability and SWE filling was defined to provide an automatic estimation of each scan quality: high (HG) or low (LG) grade. With this index, the intra-observer acquisition variability assessed by comparing consecutive scans of the same patient was 17% and 32% for HG and LG clips respectively. The measurement quantification variability assessed by comparing the measurements of a radiologist to that of a trained operator and of two automatic measurements on a same clip averaged 13% and 22% for HG and LG exams respectively. It was shown that SWE measurements highly depend on the quality of the acquired data. The proposed quality index (HG or LG) provides an objective input on the accuracy and diagnostic reliability of SWE measurements.

Mots clés: Elasticity imaging; Reliability; Reproducibility; Observer variability; Shear Wave Elastography; Quality criteria; Liver fibrosis

Domaines: Imagerie; Hépatologie et Gastroentérologie

Claire Pellot-Barakat, Muriel Lefort, Linda Chami, Mickaël Labit, Frédérique Frouin, et al.. Automatic assessment of Shear Wave Elastography quality and measurement reliability in the liver. 2015. ⟨hal-01103298⟩