Is There a Place for Elastography in the Assessment of Chronic Kidney Disease?
1 Discipline of Nephrology, 2nd Department of Internal Medicine, “Victor Babes” University of Medicine and Pharmacy, 300041 Timisoara, Romania; ; Tel.: +40-748-331-388
2 Centre for Molecular Research in Nephrology and Vascular Disease, Faculty of Medicine, “Victor Babeș” University of Medicine and Pharmacy, 300041 Timișoara, Romania
* Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Received: 4 May 2021 / Revised: 14 Jun 2021 / Accepted: 14 Jun 2021 / Published: 25 Jun 2021
Abstract
Renal elastography is a real-time ultrasound-based imaging method that can potentially be used in order to assess diffuse diseases of native kidneys. In order to find a place in the clinical practice for renal elastography, what is influencing the obtained results should be known. The kidney shear wave speed is influenced by different factors such as age, gender, measurement depth or urinary pressure. The relationship with renal function and also with renal fibrosis is different across different studies, with not all studies showing an increase in renal stiffness in more advanced renal diseases. However, the changes in renal blood flow seem to influence renal elastography, and a decrease in renal blood flow could be the cause of the decrease in the shear wave speed and could have a bigger influence on elastography compared to renal fibrosis. This paper provides a summary about the factors that seem to influence renal elastography and also regarding the limitations of this method according to the published studies thus far.
Keywords: kidney shear wave speed; renal stiffness; point shear wave elastography; shear wave speed imaging
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This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution
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CITE
Bob, F. Is There a Place for Elastography in the Assessment of Chronic Kidney Disease? Timisoara_Med 2021, 2021, 3.
Bob F. Is There a Place for Elastography in the Assessment of Chronic Kidney Disease? Timisoara Medical Journal. 2021; 2021(1):3.
Bob, Flaviu. 2021. "Is There a Place for Elastography in the Assessment of Chronic Kidney Disease?" Timisoara_Med 2021, no. 1: 3.
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