Table 3.
Subgroup and sensitivity analyses. Diagnostic performance of MRE, stratified by sex, presence or absence of obesity and degree of necroinflammatory activity, as well as on restricting to patients in whom the interval between MRE and liver biopsy was <1 year.
| Categories | Subgroups¶ | Fibrosis Stage |
AUROC | Sensitivity | Specificity | Categories |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sex | Males (n=87) |
≥1 | 0.88 (0.62–0.94) | 0.84 | 0.77 | Males vs. Females: ≥F1: 0.67 |
| ≥2 | 0.85 (0.79–0.93) | 0.75 | 0.81 | ≥F2: 0.71 | ||
| ≥3 | 0.96 (0.89–0.99) | 0.87 | 0.94 | ≥F3: 0.05 | ||
| Stage 4 | 0.93 (0.79–0.97) | 1.00 | 0.90 | F4: 0.77 | ||
| Females (n=145) |
≥1 | 0.85 (0.80–0.93) | 0.72 | 0.85 | ||
| ≥2 | 0.88 (0.77–0.94) | 0.82 | 0.84 | |||
| ≥3 | 0.88 (0.80–0.93) | 0.82 | 0.83 | |||
| Stage 4 | 0.90 (0.71–0.95) | 0.84 | 0.85 | |||
| Obesity | BMI ≥30kg/m2 (obese) (n=141) |
≥1 | 0.85 (0.83–0.89) | 0.68 | 0.83 | Obese vs. non-obese ≥F1: 0.30 |
| ≥2 | 0.88 (0.85–0.96) | 0.78 | 0.88 | ≥F2: 0.51 | ||
| ≥3 | 0.90 (0.70–0.93) | 0.86 | 0.84 | ≥F3: 0.25 | ||
| Stage 4 | 0.91 (0.75–0.94) | 0.81 | 0.91 | F4: 0.33 | ||
| BMI <30kg/m2 (n=59) |
≥1 | 0.79 (0.63–0.96) | 0.68 | 0.86 | ||
| ≥2 | 0.84 (0.80–1.00) | 0.75 | 0.79 | |||
| ≥3 | 0.97 (0.95–1.00) | 0.89 | 0.96 | |||
| Stage 4 | 0.98 (0.82–1.00) | 1.00 | 0.91 | |||
|
Inflammation grade |
Absent-mild (n=123) |
≥1 | 0.84 (0.77–0.90) | 0.77 | 0.78 | Absent-mild inflammation vs. moderate-severe inflammation ≥F1: 0.70 |
| ≥2 | 0.89 (0.79–0.96) | 0.82 | 0.87 | ≥F2: 0.65 | ||
| ≥3 | 0.90 (0.82–0.96) | 0.94 | 0.82 | ≥F3: 0.83 | ||
| Stage 4 | 0.95 (0.87–0.99) | 0.91 | 0.90 | F4: 0.56 | ||
| Moderate-severe (n=97) |
≥1 | 0.87 (0.84–1.00) | 0.71 | 0.90 | ||
| ≥2 | 0.86 (0.84–0.95) | 0.76 | 0.84 | |||
| ≥3 | 0.91 (0.73–0.93) | 0.91 | 0.82 | |||
| Stage 4 | 0.91 (0.76–0.93) | 0.90 | 0.89 | |||
| Sensitivity Analysis | ||||||
|
Interval between MRE and liver biopsy |
<1 year (n=219) |
≥1 | 0.85 (0.79–0.88) | 0.73 | 0.80 | N/A |
| ≥2 | 0.87 (0.83–0.94) | 0.79 | 0.86 | |||
| ≥3 | 0.91 (0.84–0.95) | 0.92 | 0.82 | |||
| Stage 4 | 0.93 (0.82–0.96) | 0.91 | 0.87 | |||
Represents the comparison of diagnostic performance of MRE between subgroups (males vs. females, obese vs. non-obese, none-mild vs. moderate-severe inflammation) for each corresponding fibrosis stage (any, significant, advanced fibrosis and cirrhosis). To compare the difference of AUROCs between subgroups, we used the interaction test proposed by Altman and Bland for comparisons with two estimates.
Please note that numbers in subgroups may not add up to 232 due to missing data in individual studies