Objective To explore the clinical application value of virtual touch tissue quantification (VTQ) in the differential diagnosis of focal liver lesions. Methods VTQ technique was performed on 93 patients with 96 focal liver lesions and 15 healthy volunteers to obtain shear wave velocity (SWV) values of lesions and liver parenchyma. Results Intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC) of SWV values of focal liver lesions, normal liver parenchyma and peripheral liver parenchyma of the focal lesions by two operators were all over 0.71. The average SWV value of malignant group was the highest, followed by that of benign group and then normal group (P<0.05). Taking SWV of 1.96 m/s as diagnostic reference value for differential diagnosis between malignant and benign lesions, the accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive value was 91.68%, 98.41%, 80.02%, 89.62% and 96.57%, respectively. There was no statistical difference of SWV values between hemangioma and cirrhotic nodules in the liver, neither among FNH, hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and liver metastatic carcinoma (P>0.05). The average SWV value of the liver parenchyma in malignant group was higher than that in benign group and normal group (P<0.05). The average SWV value of the liver parenchyma in benign group was higher than that in normal group (P>0.05). There was no statistical difference of SWV values of the liver parenchyma between hemangioma and FNH, neither among liver metastatic carcinoma, HCC, cirrhotic nodules and cholangiocellular carcinoma (P>0.05). Conclusion VTQ technique provides quantitative information which can reflect the hardness of focal liver lesions,therefore being helpful to the differential diagnosis of focal liver lesions.