Prospective Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2021. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Radiol. May 28, 2021; 13(5): 137-148
Published online May 28, 2021. doi: 10.4329/wjr.v13.i5.137
Comparison of point and two-dimensional shear wave elastography of the spleen in healthy subjects
Friederike Nowotny, Julian Schmidberger, Patrycja Schlingeloff, Andreas Binzberger, Wolfgang Kratzer
Friederike Nowotny, Julian Schmidberger, Patrycja Schlingeloff, Andreas Binzberger, Wolfgang Kratzer, Department of Internal Medicine I, University Hospital Ulm, Ulm 89081, Germany
Author contributions: Kratzer W und Nowotny F designed the study; Nowotny F, Binzberger A, and Kratzer W performed the research; Schmidberger J und Schlingeloff P analyzed the data; Nowotny F and Kratzer W wrote the paper; and all authors revised the manuscript for final submission.
Institutional review board statement: The study was approved by the local ethics committee and conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki (No. 415/15). All data were analyzed anonymously.
Informed consent statement: All study participants, or their legal guardian, provided informed written consent prior to study enrollment.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Wolfgang Kratzer, MD, Professor, Department of Internal Medicine I, University Hospital Ulm, Albert-Einstein-Allee 23, Ulm 89081, Germany. wolfgang.kratzer@uniklinik-ulm.de
Received: February 19, 2021
Peer-review started: February 19, 2021
First decision: March 28, 2021
Revised: March 31, 2021
Accepted: May 22, 2021
Article in press: May 22, 2021
Published online: May 28, 2021
Processing time: 97 Days and 21.3 Hours
ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS
Research background

Measurement of shear wave velocity in the spleen has been increasingly used in prognostic assessment of esophageal varices and as a marker of portal hypertension. Few systematic comparative studies of the different methods of physical elastography of the spleen are currently available.

Research motivation

Currently, whether the different elastography methods and shear wave measurements with different ultrasonic devices provide comparable results have not been clarified.

Research objectives

The objective of the study was to compare point shear wave and two-dimensional elastography of the spleen considering the anatomical location (upper, hilar, and lower pole).

Research methods

As part of a prospective clinical study, healthy volunteers were examined for splenic elasticity using four different ultrasound devices between May 2015 and April 2017. The devices used for point shear wave elastography were from Siemens (S 3000) and Philips (Epiq 7), and those used for two-dimensional shear wave elastography were from GE (Logiq E9) and Toshiba (Aplio 500). In addition, two different software versions (5.0 and 6.0) were evaluated for the Toshiba ultrasound device (Aplio 500). The study consisted of three arms: A, B, and C.

Research results

In study arm A, 200 subjects were evaluated (78 males and 122 females, mean age 27.9 ± 8.1 years). In study arm B, 113 subjects were evaluated (38 men and 75 women, mean age 26.0 ± 6.3 years). In study arm C, 44 subjects were enrolled. A significant correlation of the shear wave velocities at the upper third of the spleen (r = 0.33088, P < 0.0001) was demonstrated only for the Philips Epiq 7 device compared to the Siemens Acuson S 3000. In comparisons of the other ultrasound devices (GE, Siemens, Toshiba), no comparable results could be obtained for any anatomical position of the spleen. The influencing factors age, gender, and body mass index did not show a clear correlation with the measured shear wave velocities.

Research conclusions

The absolute values of the shear wave elastography measurements of the spleen and the two different elastography methods are not comparable between different manufacturers or models.

Research perspectives

However, absolute values of splenic shear wave elastography measurements are not transferable between manufacturers or models.