Sep 25, 2024
Liver and spleen shear-wave elastography helped distinguish patients with myelofibrosis from healthy controls and those with essential thrombocytopenia, according to findings published in the Journal of Ultrasound. This suggests that the technique may help diagnose myeloproliferative neoplasms.
Researchers added that liver stiffness and spleen stiffness appeared to be linked with bone marrow fibrosis.
“Vibration-controlled transient elastography (VCTE) has proven to be a valuable tool in providing prognostic and staging information in patients with liver disease, greatly reducing the need for liver biopsy,” Vito Sansone, MD, Student, and colleagues wrote. “Spleen stiffness, similarly, has proven useful as a surrogate marker of portal hypertension. To date, however, the role of any of these techniques in the work-up of MPNs has not been established. …This study aims to investigate if values of liver and spleen stiffness measured with shear-wave elastography could help to differentiate MPNs from healthy controls and if there are significant differences in values of liver stiffness and spleen stiffness.”