High Resolution Shear Wave Elastography for Assessment of Liver Stiffness in a Murine Model of Metabolic Dysfunction-Associated Steatotic Liver Disease

In the clinical management of liver disease, early diagnosis is paramount. If identified at the stage of steatosis or early fibrosis, liver damage is reversible, and patients can recover. As disease progresses to cirrhosis, the damage to the liver is permanent and patients are at risk for liver failure and hepatocellular carcinoma. Elastography is one imaging tool that is used to assess fibrosis in the liver by measuring tissue stiffness. In this study we set out to validate a novel implementation of shear wave elastography on a commercially available high frequency linear array ultrasound transducer (UHF29x, Vevo F2, FUJIFILM VisualSonics Inc.). It was hypothesized that performing elastography using a high-frequency linear array transducer would enable the assessment of liver stiffness throughout the entire liver, as well as regionally, due to the high anatomical resolution. High-frequency shear wave elastography was performed on diet-induced, Metabolic Dysfunction-Associated Steatotic Liver Disease (MASLD) mice to assess liver stiffness longitudinally. High resolution ultrasound imaging allowed for superior anatomical identification and when combined with elastography mode, the assessment of stiffness in specific regions of the liver. Increased stiffness (p<0.05) was seen as early as 4 weeks after diet-commencement. Specifically, the median lobe was more greatly affected, compared to other regions of the liver, and the left lobe was least affected. Combining elastography with higher resolution anatomical ultrasound is expected to contribute to advancements in the development of MASLD therapeutics and the study of liver disease in preclinical animal models. Disclosure of funding sources: Authors are employed by, and research was funded by FUJIFILM VisualSonics Inc. This abstract was presented at the American Physiology Summit 2025 and is only available in HTML format. There is no downloadable file or PDF version. The Physiology editorial board was not involved in the peer review process.