Editorial
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2016. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Mar 7, 2016; 22(9): 2647-2656
Published online Mar 7, 2016. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v22.i9.2647
Ultrasound elastographic techniques in focal liver lesions
Clara Benedetta Conti, Federica Cavalcoli, Mirella Fraquelli, Dario Conte, Sara Massironi
Clara Benedetta Conti, Federica Cavalcoli, Mirella Fraquelli, Dario Conte, Sara Massironi, Gastroenterology and Endoscopy Unit, Fondazione IRCCS Ca’ Granda, Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico, 20122 Milan, Italy
Clara Benedetta Conti, Federica Cavalcoli, Dario Conte, Department of Pathophysiology and Organ Transplantation, Università degli Studi di Milano, 20122 Milan, Italy
Author contributions: Massironi S planned the work; Conti CB and Cavalcoli F performed the literature search; Conti CB wrote the first draft of the manuscript; Conti CB, Cavalcoli F and Fraquelli M edited the subsequent versions of the manuscript; Fraquelli M critically revised the manuscript for relevant intellectual content; Conti CB and Fraquelli M corrected the final version; Conti CB and Massironi S wrote the revised version of the manuscript; Finally all authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare no conflicts of interest.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which 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/
Correspondence to: Sara Massironi, MD, PhD, Gastroenterology and Endoscopy Unit, Fondazione IRCCS Ca’ Granda, Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico, Via F. Sforza, 35, 20122 Milan, Italy. sara.massironi@policlinico.mi.it
Telephone: +39-2-55033445
Received: November 1, 2015
Peer-review started: November 2, 2015
First decision: December 11, 2015
Revised: December 23, 2015
Accepted: January 11, 2016
Article in press: January 11, 2016
Published online: March 7, 2016
Processing time: 121 Days and 13.7 Hours
Core Tip

Core tip: Elastography is a new ultrasound technique that allows the non-invasive assessment of tissue stiffness. Some elastographic techniques have already been validated and are widely used to evaluate liver stiffness in order to assess hepatic fibrosis and cirrhosis. Elastography is also useful in the diagnosis and characterization of different solid tumors. Considering that only a few studies have so far focused on the role of elastography in the evaluation of focal liver lesions, the present review aims to evaluate the role of real-time sonoelastography, strain elastography and ultrasound-based elastrographic techniques in the differential diagnosis and characterization of focal liver lesions.