Changes in Liver and Splenic Stiffness after Direct-Acting Antiviral Therapy in Chronic Hepatitis C: A Single-Centre, Prospective, Observational Study

Background. Liver and spleen stiffness measured by shear-wave elastography have been demonstrated to correlate well with liver fibrosis and hepatic venous pressure gradient, respectively. Aim. To investigate the long-term effect of direct-acting antivirals (DAA) on liver and splenic stiffness in patients with chronic hepatitis C. Methods. We conducted a single-centre prospective observational study including 129 chronic hepatitis C patients who achieved a sustained virological response (SVR) with DAA treatment. Liver and spleen stiffness were measured by point shear-wave elastography at pretreatment, end of treatment (EOT), and 48 and 96 weeks after EOT (SVR48 and SVR96, respectively). Results. Liver stiffness measurements (LSM) continued to decline to SVR96, whereas there was no change in spleen stiffness measurements (SSM). Stratified analysis at the SSM 3.2 m/s, which was estimated as the cut-off value of clinically significant portal hypertension, showed that SSM did not change in the low SSM group (SSM <3.2 m/s, n =81), whereas in the high SSM group (SSM ≥3.2 m/s, n =48), the SSM decreased significantly between pretreatment and EOT but did not change thereafter. Moreover, multivariate analysis of risk factors for the SSM remaining in the range of SSM ≥3.2 m/s at SVR96 in the high SSM group revealed that LSM ≥1.93 m/s was a significant factor (p =0.019). Conclusion. These results suggest that DAA treatment of chronic hepatitis C patients may improve liver fibrosis in the long term and some patients with advanced liver fibrosis may not expect an improvement of portal hypertension even if an SVR is achieved.