WANG Hsin-Kai^{1, 2}, CHOU Yi-Hong^{1, 2}, LIN Niang-Chen^{2, 3}, LIU Chin-Su^{2, 3}, LOONG Che-Chuan^{2, 3}

Hsin-Kai WANG^{1, 2}, Yi-Hong CHOU^{1, 2}, Niang-Chen LIN^{2, 3}, Chin-Su LIU^{2, 3}, Che-Chuan LOONG^{2, 3}

¹Division of Ultrasound, Department of Radiology, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Taiwan, ²Division of Transplant Surgery, Department of Surgery, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Taiwan, ³School of Medicine, National Yang-Ming University, Taiwan

キーワード :

【Purpose】
To investigate whether the stiffness of native liver prior to liver transplantation is related to the graft outcome during early post-transplant period.
【Material and Method】
Totally 55 recipients of living-donor liver transplantation （40 men, 15 women, mean age 55.8 years） were included. The stiffness of native liver was measured one day before liver transplantation using ARFI technique, with the degree of stiffness expressed by shear save velocity in meter per second （m/s）. The value of liver stiffness was analyzed for its association with graft outcome after liver transplantation.
【Results】
The mean stiffness of the native liver is 2.77±0.92 （range 1.01 - 4.59） m/s. During the first three months after liver transplantation, mortality or re-transplantation caused by graft failure occurred in 8 patients （14.5％）. Native liver stiffness greater than 3.4 m/s were at increased risk of graft failure （hazard ratio=8.45 ［95％ CI=1.47-48.75］, p= 0.017）. Kaplan Meier survival analysis with log rank test showed a lower three-months graft survival in native liver with stiffness greater than 3.4 m/s （70.6％ vs. 92.1％, p=0.029）.
【Conclusion】
The stiffness of the native liver can be a useful predictor of the graft outcome in early post-transplant period for living-donor liver transplantation.