Ultrasonographic Elastography of the Liver, Spleen, Kidneys, and Prostate in Clinically Normal Beagle Dogs

Abstract

Standard ultrasonography is often insensitive for distinguishing normal vs. diseased states for canine abdominal organs. Ultrasonographic elastography is a new technique that is becoming increasingly available and may help to improve sensitivity. This study evaluated the feasibility, repeatability, and reproducibility of strain elastography of the liver, spleen, kidneys, and prostate in healthy dogs and described the elasticity of each organ using strain values and strain ratios. The reproducibility of strain elastography was excellent, and intraobserver repeatability was moderate to excellent. The strain value of each organ was not significantly different among dogs (liver = 143.38 ± 7.41, spleen = 141.04 ± 9.03, left renal cortex = 141.26 ± 7.50, right renal cortex = 145.80 ± 7.79, and prostate = 135.46 ± 5.80), except for the renal medulla (left = 51.19 ± 4.54 and right = 51.93 ± 5.09) (P < 0.05). The strain ratios for the liver, spleen, renal cortex, and prostate were similar with no significant difference (liver = 10.20 ± 1.47, spleen = 8.40 ± 1.53, left renal cortex = 9.62 ± 1.56, right renal cortex = 8.29 ± 1.63, and prostate = 8.20 ± 1.21), except for the renal medulla (left = 3.48 ± 0.68 and right = 2.95 ± 0.63) (P < 0.05). Our results indicated that strain elastography was feasible for estimating tissue stiffness in the canine liver, spleen, kidneys, and prostate. This study provides basic information for strain values and strain ratios for the liver, spleen, kidneys, and prostate in clinically normal dogs. C 2015 American College of Veterinary Radiology.

Role of strain elastography in differentiating malignant hypoechoic splenic lesions in dogs: Preliminary results

“…Considering the strain ratio between the stiffness of the spleen and the stiffness of the abdominal wall, the inter-and intraobserver variability of strain elastography have already been demonstrated (Jeon et al, 2015). Our study showed the repeata- of compression and retraction of the probe as equal as possible between them.…”

“…In human medicine, malignant parenchymal lesions are significantly stiffer than surrounding normal parenchyma (Wells & Liang, 2011;Barr, 2012;Teng et al, 2012;Wang et al, 2013). Strain elastography has proven to be a feasible technique for estimating tissue stiffness in the healthy canine liver, spleen, kidneys and prostate (Jeon et al, 2015). To our knowledge there are no studies concerning the evaluation of splenic lesions using real time elastosonography neither in humans nor in small animal medicine.…”

Ultrasonographic tools used in the evaluation of the canine spleen: A review

“…The manual compression elastography and ARFI techniques were related for evaluating canine splenic stiff ness (Holdsworth et al, 2014;Jeon et al, 2015;Maronezi et al, 2015b). Qualitative evaluation reported by Jeon et al (2015) was performed on the colour elastogram and the calculated splenic strain intensity was compared with abdominal wall strain intensity, resulting in the splenic strain rate that may be useful for normal and abnormal spleen evaluation.…”

“…Qualitative evaluation reported by Jeon et al (2015) was performed on the colour elastogram and the calculated splenic strain intensity was compared with abdominal wall strain intensity, resulting in the splenic strain rate that may be useful for normal and abnormal spleen evaluation. A preliminary study published by Holdsworth et al (2014) determined the quantitative elastographic characteristics of the normal liver, spleen, and kidneys in 15 healthy dogs at predetermined depths within the parenchyma.…”

Elastography Usage in Renal Patients

“…Özellikle fibrozisin yaygın olduğu durumlarda biyopsi ile eksik ve yanlış örnek alınabileceği için daha avantajlı olabilmektedir. Meme, tiroid ve prostat kanserlerinin belirlenmesinde kullanılabilir (11)(12)(13). Yine bazı özel elastografi cihazları kas ve tendon yapısını değerlendirebilmekte ve bu dokuların mekanik özelliklerinin belirlenmesinde yararlı olmaktadır (14).…”