[Clinical value of acoustic radiation force impulse technique to predict esophageal and gastric varices in patients with biliary atresia].

To investigate the clinical value of acoustic radiation force impulse (ARFI)technique in predicting esophageal and gastric varices in patients with biliary atresia after Kasai portoenterostomy. A total of 42 patients with biliary atresia after Kasai portoenterostomy were collected from September 2015 to May 2016 in Tianjin First Central Hospital.ARFI technique was used to measure the stiffness of liver and spleen, and 28 healthy children as control.According to the result of CT examination , patients with biliary atresia were divided into two groups , twenty-three patients with esophageal and gastric varices(A group) and nineteen patients without esophageal and gastric varices (B group), Comparing the difference of liver and spleen stiffness between the two groups.The ROC curve analysis was carried out to test the diagnostic power of effective parameter. The ARFI value of liver (2.98±0.80) m/s and spleen (3.00±0.33) m/s of patients with biliary atresia was significantly higher than that of control group((1.10±0.16) m/s, (2.12±0.32) m/s), the differences had statistical significance (both <0.01). Between group A and group B, the spleen ARFI value of group A(3.16±0.26) m/s was higher than group B(2.83±0.32) m/s, the difference had statistical significance (<0.01), whereas there was no statistical difference of liver ARFI value between two group((2.93±0.65), (3.02±0.96) m/s)(>0.05). The cut-off ARFI value of spleen to diagnose esophageal and gastric varices in biliary atresia was 3.02 m/s, and the biggest area under the ROC curve, sensitivity, and specificity were 0.81, 78.6% and 84.5%, respectively. ARFI can be used as a noninvasive method to predict the presence of esophageal and gastric varices in patients with biliary atresia after Kasai portoenterostomy.