Fig 1.
Finite element model of liver tissue and the mesh generated.
(A) An idealized 3D model. (B) An idealized two-dimensional axisymmetric finite element model of liver tissue adopted in our study. (C) The generated finite element mesh (22,500 finite elements).
Fig 2.
Axial displacement, produced by an external mechanical vibration, measured along the scanning line in the liver tissue model as a function of time (0.02s to 0.15s after excitation).
The following combinations of Young's modulus (E) and viscosity (μ2) were used for simulations: (A) 4 kPa+0 Pa·s, (B) 4 kPa +1 Pa·s, (C) 4 kPa+4 Pa·s, (D) 6 kPa+0 Pa·s, (E) 6 kPa+1 Pa·s, (F) 6 kPa+4 Pa·s, (G) 8 kPa+0 Pa·s, (H) 8 kPa+1 Pa·s, (I) 8 kPa+4 Pa·s, (J) 10 kPa+0 Pa·s, (K) 10 kPa+1 Pa·s and (L) 10 kPa+4 Pa·s, respectively.
Fig 3.
Peak axial displacements along the depth of propagation for the simulated dataset, viscosity (μ2) are set as 0/0.5/1/2/4 Pa·s in per subfigure.
Young's modulus (E) in each subfigure: (A) E = 4 kPa, (B) E = 6 kPa, (C) E = 8 kPa, and (D) E = 10 kPa.
Table 1.
AFC values for different combinations of viscosity and Young's modulus.
Fig 4.
AFC varied with viscosity or Young's modulus.
(A) Changing curve with viscosity. (B) Changing curve with Young's modulus.
Table 2.
General characteristics of the 99 patients included in the study with staging and grading of fibrosis an0064 necro-inflammatory activity, classified using the METAVIR scoring system.
Fig 5.
Boxplot of LSM and AFC grouped by two stage of fibrosis.
(A) Boxplot of LSM values, and. (B) Boxplot of AFC values.
Table 3.
Correlation between clinical indicators of liver fibrosis and the LSM and AFC indices.
Table 4.
Independent-samples t-test evaluation of the capacity of the LSM and AFC in distinguishing early stages of liver fibrosis (F1 and F2).
Fig 6.
ROC curves for the LSM and AFC indices to differentiate F1 and F2 stages of liver fibrosis.
(a) ROC curves of LSM. (b) ROC curves of AFC.
Table 5.
Area under the ROC curve and summary statistics of the diagnostic value of the LSM and AFC indices for stages of liver fibrosis ≥ F2.
Table 6.
Correlation between clinical indicators of liver fibrosis and the AFC indices.