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Transient elastography — a noninvasive method of measuring liver stiffness — has been used in many European centers instead of liver biopsy to evaluate hepatic fibrosis and has demonstrated excellent diagnostic accuracy (Gastroenterology 2008; 134:960).
To evaluate the limitations of this approach, investigators in France conducted a prospective, single-center study involving 7261 patients who underwent a total of 13,369 examinations and 134,239 liver-stiffness measurements during a 5-year period using a FibroScan transient elastography device. Specifically, the researchers identified the frequency and determinants of measurement failures and unreliable results associated with the device. Measurement failures were recorded when no values wer…