Abstract

In this study, we wanted to compare the renal parenchymal stiffness between healthy subjects and patients with chronic kidney disease due to type II diabetes mellitus and hypertension, using shear wave elastography. We also wanted to do the staging of chronic kidney disease based on renal parenchymal stiffness and study its correlation with estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR). METHODS: This was a hospital-based study conducted among 140 patients who underwent ultrasound examination in the Department of Radiodiagnosis, R.L. Jalappa Hospital and Research Centre attached to Sri Devaraj Urs Medical College, Tamaka, Kolar, after obtaining clearance from the institutional ethics committee and written informed consent from the study participants. RESULTS: A significant negative linear association between “YM readings and eGFR” was found using the “Spearman correlation coefficient (r = −0.668, p < 0.001)”. 5 CKD (9.71 ± 2.61) patients followed by Stage 4 (8.85 ± 1.74), Stage 3 (7.58 ± 1.26), Stage 2 (6.36 ± 1.28) and Stage 1 (3.85 ± 0.30). Tukey post-hoc multiple comparison test revealed that there was a statistically significant difference in means between stages 1, 3 and 5, and stages 2, 4 and 5. However, the ability to differentiate between individual stages was poor. Setting a threshold between healthy and unhealthy renal parenchyma could aid in the early detection and treatment of CKD. CONCLUSION: SWE was more effective in identifying CKD than “renal length and cortical thickness”. A cut-off value of 4.44 kPa was used to determine whether a kidney was diseased or not.

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