Retrospective Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2019. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Jan 21, 2019; 25(3): 367-377
Published online Jan 21, 2019. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v25.i3.367
Predicting gastroesophageal varices through spleen magnetic resonance elastography in pediatric liver fibrosis
Haesung Yoon, Hyun Joo Shin, Myung-Joon Kim, Seok Joo Han, Hong Koh, Seung Kim, Mi-Jung Lee
Haesung Yoon, Hyun Joo Shin, Myung-Joon Kim, Mi-Jung Lee, Department of Radiology, Severance Hospital, Severance Pediatric Liver Disease Research Group, Research Institute of Radiological Science, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul 03722, South Korea
Seok Joo Han, Department of Surgery, Severance Hospital, Severance Pediatric Liver Disease Research Group, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul 03722, South Korea
Hong Koh, Seung Kim, Division of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition, Department of Pediatrics, Severance Children’s Hospital, Severance Pediatric Liver Disease Research Group, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul 03722, South Korea
Author contributions: Yoon H and Lee MJ designed the research; Yoon H, Shin HJ and Lee MJ performed the research and wrote the manuscript; Yoon H, Shin HJ and Lee MJ analyzed the data; Kim MJ, Han SJ, Koh H and Kim S contributed analytic tools; Yoon H, Shin HJ, Kim MJ, Han SJ, Koh H, Kim S and Lee MJ revised and approved the final version.
Institutional review board statement: This study was reviewed and approved by the local ethics committee of the Severance Hospital, Yonsei University.
Informed consent statement: Because of the retrospective and anonymous character of this study, the need for informed consent was waived by the institutional review board.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All authors declare no conflicts-of-interest related to this article.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
Open-Access: This is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Mi-Jung Lee, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Radiology, Severance Hospital, Severance Pediatric Liver Disease Research Group, Research Institute of Radiological Science, Yonsei University College of Medicine, 50-1 Yonsei-ro, Seodaemun-gu, Seoul 03722, South Korea. mjl1213@yuhs.ac
Telephone: +82-2-22287400 Fax: +82-2-3933035
Received: November 14, 2018
Peer-review started: November 14, 2018
First decision: December 5, 2018
Revised: December 12, 2018
Accepted: December 21, 2018
Article in press: December 21, 2018
Published online: January 21, 2019
Core Tip

Core tip: Non-invasive monitoring of portal hypertension is important in children with hepatic fibrosis. Spleen magnetic resonance elastography (MRE) values predicted gastroesophageal varices at a cut-off of 9.9 kPa in biliary atresia patients after the Kasai operation, and the diagnostic performance was comparable to that of the aspartate aminotransferase to platelet ratio index and the spleen size ratio. However, liver MRE values did not differ in patients with and without portal hypertension or gastroesophageal varices.