Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Extrahepatic biliary obstruction affects liver fibrosis tests in dogs
By Tamura, Masahiro et al.·Published in Veterinary radiology & ultrasound : the official journal of the American College of Veterinary Radiology and the International Veterinary Radiology Association·2021·Veterinary Teaching Hospital, Japan·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: Extrahepatic biliary obstruction can interfere with hepatic fibrosis prediction using two-dimensional shear wave elastography in dogs.
- Species:
- dog
Plain-English summary
A group of 20 dogs underwent a special test called two-dimensional shear wave elastography (2D-SWE) to measure liver stiffness, which helps predict liver scarring (fibrosis). Seven of these dogs had a condition called extrahepatic biliary obstruction (EHBO), which can block bile flow and affect liver function. The results showed that dogs with EHBO had higher liver stiffness measurements compared to those without it, even if they didn't have significant liver scarring. After surgery to relieve the obstruction, the liver stiffness measurements in the EHBO dogs decreased, indicating that treating the blockage can improve liver health.
People also search for: dog liver problems · extrahepatic biliary obstruction treatment · liver fibrosis in dogs · dog liver stiffness test
Abstract
Two-dimensional shear wave elastography (2D-SWE) can be used to quantitatively evaluate the elastic modulus of the liver as shear wave velocity (SWV), which can noninvasively predict clinically relevant hepatic fibrosis in both dogs and humans. However, extrahepatic biliary obstruction (EHBO), regardless of the presence of clinically relevant hepatic fibrosis, can influence SWVs in humans and thus may interfere with hepatic fibrosis prediction using 2D-SWE in dogs. The aim of this prospective, observational, and one-group pretest-posttest study is to investigate whether SWV measured by 2D-SWE displays a difference between dogs with and without EHBO. A total of 20 dogs were included (7 with EHBO and 13 with gallbladder pathology but no EHBO) that underwent preoperative SWV measurement using 2D-SWE. In all dogs, stages of hepatic fibrosis were evaluated histopathologically using a scoring scheme. In addition, postoperative SWVs in dogs with EHBO relieved via laparotomy were also evaluated. The median (range) SWVs in the dogs with and without EHBO were 1.91 (1.81-2.54) m/s and 1.57 (1.37-1.64) m/s, respectively. Although there was no significant difference in the histopathological hepatic fibrosis stages between the dogs with and without EHBO, the preoperative SWVs in the dogs with EHBO were significantly higher than in dogs without EHBO (P = .0004), and SWVs were found to decrease significantly after surgery (P = .0097). This study demonstrates that EHBO can increase the SWV of dogs without clinically relevant hepatic fibrosis and can interfere with the prediction of noninvasive hepatic fibrosis using 2D-SWE.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33855776/