Value of Shear Wave Elastography for differentiating benign and malignant renal lesions

Aims: To investigate the diagnostic accuracy of shear-wave elastography (SWE) for assessing malignant and benign kidney masses. Materials and methods: Forty patients with solid renal masses underwent US elastographic evaluation. SWE values of the lesions and adjacent cortical renal parenchyma and SWER were detected prospectively. Malignant tumors were recorded as group 1 and benign tumors were recorded as group 2. Results: The highest elasticity values were 27.27 +/- 25.66 kPa for group 1 and 16.13 +/- 8.89 kPa for group 2. The mean +/- SD elasticity values for adjacent renal cortex for groups 1 and 2 were 2.7 +/- 2.08 and 2.75 +/- 1.35, respectively. For group 1, a negative correlation was observed between the age of the patients and SWER value (p=0.047, rs=-0.401). There was also a negative correlation between the SWER value and the SWE value of adjacent renal cortex (p=0.004, rs=-0.555). Conclusion: SWE is a noninvasive method that provides quantitative elasticity information on tissues. Overlaps among different types of renal lesions may be due to heterogeneity of the lesions. Larger study groups may clarify the other factors affecting SWE values under both normal and pathological conditions.