Evaluation of Sound Touch Elastography in Diagnosing Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease

[Objective] We aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of sound touch elastography (STE) in diagnosing nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). [Methods] A total of 58 patients with nonalcoholic fatty liver (NAFL) and 37 with nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) were enrolled between January 2018 and January 2023. These patients were assigned to the NAFL and NASH groups, respectively. Additionally, 39 healthy volunteers were selected as the control group. All participants underwent liver STE and sound touch quantification (STQ) examinations. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were used to compare diagnostic performance among the three groups.[Results] There were significant differences in STE and STQ values among the three groups (P < 0.001). The areas under the ROC curve (AUC) for STE and STQ were 0.833 and 0.710, respectively, between the control and NASH groups; 0.725 and 0.668 between the NASH and NAFL groups; and 0.607 and 0.534 between the control and NAFL groups.[Conclusions] STE and STQ values were significantly higher in the NASH group than in the NAFL and control groups. Additionally, STE values in the NAFL group were higher than those in the control group. STE showed good diagnostic performance in identifying both NAFL and NASH and in distinguishing between the two. The combination of STE with two-dimensional ultrasonography offers significant value in the differential diagnosis across the NAFLD spectrum and is worthy of clinical application and further promotion.