To explore the hardness of hepatic steatosis of rabbit model by real-time shear wave elastography imaging (SWE).

Twenty-five healthy male rabbits were divided into two groups, one group was feed high diet (n=17) and the other group was feed normal diet (n=8). For 21 weeks, detected the Young′s modulus value of two groups rabbits by SWE and hepatic function: alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspatate aminotransferase( AST), glutamyltransferase (GGT), alkaline phosphatase (ALP), albumin/globulin (A/G), albumin (ALB), globulin (GLB), total bilirubin (TBIL), direct bilirubin (DBIL), indirect bilirubin (IBIL). And the rabbits of high diet group were put to death, detected the pathology of liver by microscope, the rabbit up to fatty liver standard was the experimental group, and the group feed normal diet was control group. And then comparison the Young′s modulus value and hepatic function value between two group rabbits by t-test. Analyzed the relationship of Young′s modulus value between hepatic function value of model rabbits by Pearson′s correlation test.

The model group has 13 rabbits, the control group has 8 rabbits. The Young′s modulus value of model group is higher compare to the control group [(11.35±3.18) kPa vs (8.61±1.19) kPa, t=2.800, P=0.013; (3.78±1.41) kPa vs (2.52±0.37) kPa, t=2.448, P=0.024; (6.92±1.76) kPa vs (5.07±0.49) kPa, t=3.558, P=0.003]. AST, ALT, ALP, GGT, TBIL, DBIL, IBIL of model group is higher compare to the control group [(82.00±25.52) U/L vs (10.37±13.09) U/L, t=2.209, P=0.040; (43.91±20.76) U/L vs (24.85±4.77) U/L, t=2.533, P=0.020; (49.92±13.42) g/L vs (31.40±8.26) g/L, t=3.913, P=0.002; (9.27±3.82) U/L vs (5.40±1.66) U/L, t=2.694, P=0.014; (3.63±0.26) μmol/L vs (0.21±0.09) μmol/L, t=44.206, P=0.000; (0.84±0.52) μmol/L vs (0.03±0.04) μmol/L, t=4.322, P=0.000; (2.98±0.43) μmol/L vs (0.30±0.14) μmol/L, t=20.682, P=0.000]. ALB, GLB, A/G were lower than that of the control group [(33.71±3.56) g/L vs (43.10±2.62) g/L, t=6.937, P=0.000; (42.88±15.48) g/L vs (23.45±1.80) g/L, t=3.500, P=0.002; 0.88±0.21 vs 1.84±0.14, t=11.290, P=0.000]. There was significant positive correlation between MEAN and ALP, A/G (r=-0.676, P=0.011; r=-0.632, P=0.021), between MIN and A/G, GGT (r=-0.549, P=0.050, r=0.589, P=0.034), and between MAX and ALB, TBIL (r=-0.583, P=0.037; r=0.600, P=0.03).

The Young′s modulus value of hepatic steatosis is higher than healthy. SWE is a convenience and shortcut method for detection the change in consistency of fatty liver.