Purpose: The use of ultrasound (US) elastography to assess the pancreas is subject to serious limitations, and it is not easy to perform US elastography for the pancreas with satisfactory and reproducible accuracy. The aim of our study was to show the normal pancreatic stiffness values with shear wave elastography (SWE) and to evaluate the pancreatic tissue stiffness at two different respiratory phases.
Methods: Sixty-three subjects were included in the study. Median values of pancreatic stiffness were recorded. Values during deep inspiration and free breathing were compared.
Results: The stiffness values of the pancreatic tissue measured during deep inspiration breath holds and during free breathing were 5.70 ± 1.74 kPa and 4.15 ± 1.70 kPa, respectively. It was found that the values of pancreatic tissue stiffness measured during deep inspiration were statistically significantly higher than those measured during physiological breathing (p < 0.001).
Conclusions: Because of the reference value differences between different ultrasound elastography devices, it is important to know the reference ranges of normal pancreatic stiffness according to the device, in order to distinguish possible pathologies. In addition, the variability of pancreatic stiffness measurements with respiratory phases should be considered in clinical applications.
Keywords: ARFI imaging; Elasticity imaging technique; Elastography; Pancreas; Tissue elasticity.
© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.