Independent directory Public ClinicalTrials.gov records United States
ClinicalTrials.gov record
Completed No phase listed Observational Accepts healthy volunteers Results available

Shear Wave Sonoelastography in Pediatric Liver Fibrosis

ClinicalTrials.gov ID: NCT02372682

Public ClinicalTrials.gov record NCT02372682. Field values are reproduced from the official study page; the official ClinicalTrials.gov record remains the source of truth for eligibility, enrollment, and contact information.

ClinicalTrials.gov public records Last synced Sep 3, 2026, 1:59 AM EDT

Data is sourced from official ClinicalTrials.gov public API records. Always review the official ClinicalTrials.gov record for the latest information.

Official title

Shear Wave Sonoelastography for the Noninvasive Evaluation of Hepatic Fibrosis in the Pediatric Population

Brief summary

Reproduced verbatim from the official ClinicalTrials.gov record. Not medical advice.

Reliable methods of evaluating liver fibrosis using noninvasive techniques in the pediatric population are limited and inconclusive. Liver biopsy remains the gold standard; however, it requires sedation in pediatric patients, has a risk of hemorrhage, and provides unreliable results secondary to sampling error. Sonoelastography is a new method of evaluating liver disease that eliminates these pitfalls. There are 3 types of quantitative sonoelastography currently in use. Transient elastography is a non-imaging based technique used in adults to measure liver fibrosis in which a mechanical vibrator creates a low-frequency wave causing shear stress in the liver at a fixed depth. This technique does not work in small livers and, therefore, is not appropriate for pediatric patients. Acoustic Radiation Force Impulse Imaging (ARFI) and Shear Wave Imaging (SWE) use real-time ultrasonography and administer focused high-intensity, short-duration pulses to produce shear waves in the liver tissue. ARFI calculates the degree of tissue displacement and creates an elastogram or measurement of the stiffness of the sampled liver tissue without corresponding images. It is limited since only a small sample or region of interest (ROI) can be obtained, and it is unable to provide a corresponding elasticity map of the tissue. SWE is the newest elastography technique. It measures tiny displacements of tissue in a larger ROI with corresponding ultrasound images which provides a side by side image of the liver and color-coded elasticity map of the sampled tissue. Advantages include a larger ROI and simultaneous viewing of the selected region of interest which provides better anatomic detail with a corresponding color map of the tissue elasticity which may result in more accurate scoring of the stage of fibrosis. There are a few studies of ARFI in the pediatric population. Studies using SWE for evaluation of liver fibrosis are also few, and, all but one in adults. However, these studies have shown it to be an accurate method for liver fibrosis staging. Use of SWE in assessing liver fibrosis in pediatric patients may represent an accurate noninvasive alternative to liver biopsy in evaluating liver fibrosis as well as avoid the use of sedation.

Study identification

NCT ID
NCT02372682
Recruitment status
Completed
Study type
Observational
Phase
Not listed
Lead sponsor
St. Louis University
Other
Enrollment
171 participants

Conditions and interventions

Eligibility (public fields only)

Age range
Up to 18 Years
Sex
All
Healthy volunteers
Accepts healthy volunteers

This page does not interpret eligibility. Detailed inclusion and exclusion criteria are on the official ClinicalTrials.gov record.

Study timeline

Start date
May 10, 2015
Primary completion
May 30, 2018
Completion
May 30, 2018
Last update posted
Sep 11, 2019

2015 – 2018

United States locations

U.S. sites
1
U.S. states
1
U.S. cities
1
Facility City State ZIP Site status
St. Louis University School of Medicine St Louis Missouri 63110

Site contact phone numbers, emails, and investigator names are intentionally not displayed here. Open the official ClinicalTrials.gov record for site contact information.

About this trial record page

What this page shows
Public field values for ClinicalTrials.gov record NCT02372682, including study identification, conditions, interventions, eligibility (age, sex, healthy volunteer), timeline, and U.S. site list.
What this page does not do
No medical advice, eligibility judgments, treatment recommendations, study quality scoring, or AI-generated medical summaries. No site contact phone numbers, emails, or investigator names.
Where the data comes from
Sourced from the official ClinicalTrials.gov public API. The official record is the source of truth.
Last refresh
Last update posted Sep 11, 2019 · Synced Sep 3, 2026

Related: full search, browse by condition, browse by drug or therapy, browse by sponsor, browse by U.S. city.

Open the official record

The complete protocol, eligibility criteria, and contact information for NCT02372682 live on ClinicalTrials.gov.

View official ClinicalTrials.gov record →