Two-Dimensional Shear-Wave Elastography for Kidney Stiffness Assessment

This study aimed to analyze the utility of bidimensional shear-wave elastography for renal assessment and in the prediction of chronic kidney disease (CKD). The study included 92 subjects: 50 healthy volunteers and 42 patients with different degrees of CKD (mean age, 57.5 +/- 13.4; 50% were female), excluding those undergoing renal replacement therapies, obstructive pathology, or renal lithiasis. We performed kidney shear-wave velocity (KSWV) determinations in the midportion of the parenchyma of each kidney. The median values were expressed in meters per second. We obtained successful assessments in 94% of the cases for the right kidney (RK) and 90.2% for the left kidney (LK), with an intraclass correlation coefficient of 0.96 (RK) and 0.91 (LK). We obtained significantly lower KSWV values in the CKD lot as opposed to the healthy volunteers: RK: 1.38 +/- 0.1 versus 1.78 +/- 0.1 m/s, P = 0.05; LK: 1.37 +/- 0.1 m/s versus 1.72 +/- 0.1 m/s. We could predict the presence of CKD with a sensitivity of 89.2% and a specificity of 76.9% for a KSWV of less than 1.47 m/s, with a tendency of KSWV to decrease with CKD progression. Our study shows that KSWV measured using bidimensional shear-wave elastography decreases in patients with CKD compared with normal subjects, and that for a cutoff value of below 1.47 m/s we could predict, with a good sensitivity and specificity, the presence of CKD.