Fig 1.
TE = Transient elastography.
Table 1.
Demographic and clinical data of the pediatric cystic fibrosis patient cohort.
Fig 2.
The increase in liver stiffness (ΔTE) defines the development of CFLD in pediatric patients.
(A) The receiver operating characteristics (ROC) analysis identified a consistent increase of liver stiffness in 9 of 10 pediatric patients with a TE(4–5) >6.3 kPa and fixed the cut-off as rationale for grouping ΔTEcut-off = 0.38 kPa/year. The frequency of CFLD (B), the enhancement of liver stiffness ΔTE (C), and the median stiffness (D) was increased in the TEinc-group compared to the TEcon-group.
Fig 3.
The longitudinal assessment of TE, APRI-score, and FIB-4-score indicated increased liver stiffness and fibrosis.
(A) TE was enhanced in the TEinc-group 4 and 5 years after the first assessment. (B) Although the ANOVA calculated p-value was rather low in comparison of TEinc and TEcon 4–5 years after the first examination, statistical significance was not reached. (C) FIB-4 was enhanced in patients of the TEinc-group 4 years after the first examination, however it did not reach statistical significance at the 5th exploration. Interestingly, the FIB-4-score tends to increase gradually in patients of the TEcon-group.