Is there a sonographer effect? Sonographer as a source of variability for Shear Wave Elastography

SWE values are influenced by a sonographer effect, highlighting the need to standardize protocols to minimize systematic variability between sonographers. Multiple scans are justified for patients with SWE values near clinical thresholds. Since healthy volunteers exceeded the manufacturer-defined threshold, inherent variability between sonographers could challenge the reliability of clinical thresholds in practice.