Objective To explore the application value of shear wave elastography（SWE）used to evaluate hepaticfibrosis for rat models of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease（NAFLD）.MethodsEighty-eight SD rats were randomly divided intocontrol group（n=40）and experimental group（n=48）.Normal diet was fed to rats of the control group.Different diets were fed torats of experimental group to produce various stages of hepatic fibrosis model.Eight rats were imaged by SWE in the time of 1 st

2 nd

3 rd

8 th

12 th week

respectively.Livers were subjected to histopathologic evaluation every time after SWE.The diagnosticeffiacy of Emean in predicting different degree liver fibrosis by ROC curre.ResultsNumber of rats in liver fibrosis stage F0

F1

F2

F3 and F4 were 52

6

6

18

and 6

their Emean were（5.46±0.37）k Pa

（6.28±0.33）k Pa

（6.42±0.41）k Pa

（9.01±0.95）k Paand（15.88±2.49）k Pa

respectively

there were significant differences between different stages of liver fibrosis（F=25.5

P<0.05）.And except for the difference between F1 and F2

there were statistically significant difference among other stages（all P<0.05）.Emean of rats was significantly positively correlated with the degree of liver fibrosis（r=0.82

P<0.001）.According to the ROCcurve

the cutoff value for SWE in diagnosis of liver fibrosis ≥F1

≥F2

≥F3

and F4 were 6.3 k Pa

7.4 k Pa

8.6 k Pa

and 9.7 k Pa

respectively

and the areas under the curve were 0.87

0.89

0.93 and 0.98

respectively.The sensitivity and specificity were 83.3 %

93.3%

100%

100% and 85.5%

83.1%

91.3%

92.7%

respectively.ConclusionSWE is potentially helpful for staging thedegree of hepatic fibrosis in rat models of NAFLD.