Supersonic Shear Wave Ultrasonography for Assessing Tissue Stiffness in Native Kidney

Abstract

Recent years have brought shear wave elastography to the attention of nephrologists as a non-invasive method for detecting kidney fibrosis and, therefore, as a potential tool for reducing the need for kidney biopsy. Few studies are performed on native kidney. We aimed to compare cortical stiffness, assessed by measuring Young's modulus (YM, kPa) with SuperSonic Imaging technology, in patients with various degrees of chronic kidney disease (CKD) compared with healthy individuals. Cortical stiffness was measured by two operators, in different sessions, in 32 patients with CKD stages 3-5 and 20 healthy individuals. Comparison between mean YM values in CKD and those in controls and also between the different stages of CKD was our primary objective. The influence of other possible confounders on YM readings was also investigated and analyzed. Mean YM was significantly greater in CKD patients than in controls. Estimated YM was not able to differentiate the stages of CKD, except stage 5. Intra-subject variability was greater in CKD than in controls. Body mass index was the most important confounder in multiple analyses, in both the CKD and control groups. Our results highlight a positive correlation between increased cortical stiffness and presence of CKD. Further studies are needed to validate this method for implementation in daily clinical practice.

Using shear wave elasticity in normal terminal ileum of a healthy southwest Chinese population: a pilot study of reference elasticity ranges

“…Regarding depth, some studies indicate a decrease of SWV in deeper ROI placements (38,39), while others report no significant correlation (37). In the current literature, SWV measurements appear to be feasible with a depth of placement between 1-5 cm (33,38).…”

“…This result was opposite to our expectation, and the reason may be due to unevenly distributed data caused by the lower-than-average BMI in a Chinese population. We were unable to find guidelines defining an inverse or direct correlation between BMI and SWE values, and the results of relevant researches have not been consistent (37). We will continue to take note of other reports on the influence of BMI on SWE measurements.…”

Shear Wave Elastography in the Evaluation of Renal Parenchymal Stiffness in Patients With Chronic Kidney Disease: A Meta-Analysis

“…See Figure 2 for the literature screening process and results of the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) research guide. The main features of meta-analysis in the study were included in Table 1 [18][19][20][21][22][23].…”

Hydrogel Coating Enabling Mechanically Friendly, Step‐Index, Functionalized Optical Fiber

“…The modulus of the hydrogel coating on the PDMS fiber was measured by nanoindentation ( Figure a). The hydrogel coating layer has a low Young's modulus ( E = 34.9 ± 6.73 kPa) that is comparable to the soft tissue in the human body ( E = 1– 200 kPa) [ 36–38 ] (Figure 2b), and one order of magnitude lower than the PDMS elastomer ( E ≈ 0.4 MPa) (Figure S4, Supporting Information). However, many other optical fibers, made of silica ( E = 1–100 GPa), [ 39,40 ] plastics (1–10 GPa), [ 15,41 ] silk (0.5–20 GPa), [ 20,42 ] elastomers (0.5–10 MPa), [ 16–18 ] and some hydrogels (0.6‐10 MPa), [ 10,29,31 ] are usually stiffer than the tissues.…”