ABSTRACT
Objective:To explore the relationship between renal ultrasound shear wave elastography (SWE) and renal biopsy pathology in patients with primary glomerulonephritis (PGN).Methods:A total of 137 confirmed PGN patients admitted to Bin hai wan Central Hospital of Dongguan from January 2021 to March 2023 were selected as the study subjects for quantitative analysis of renal SWE and pathological examination of renal biopsy. The differences in renal elastic modulus among different pathological types, as well as the relationship between renal elastic modulus and pathological factors of renal biopsy and IgA nephropathy Lee grading, were analyzed.Results:IgA nephropathy, membranous nephropathy, and minimal degenerative glomerulopathy were the most common pathological types of PGN, and the difference in renal elastic modulus among the three was not statistically significant (all P>0.05). The maximum elastic modulus of the immune complex deposition positive group was greater than that of the negative group ( P<0.05). The average, median, and maximum elastic modulus of the group with severe degree of foot cell fusion were lower than those of the group with mild degree of foot process fusion (all P<0.05). The average and maximum values of elastic modulus in the group with mesangial eosinophil deposition were higher than those in the group without mesangial eosinophil deposition (all P<0.05), while the maximum value of elastic modulus in the group with pericystic fibrosis was lower than that in the group without pericystic fibrosis ( P<0.05). There was no statistically significant difference in the renal elastic modulus values among the Lee grading subgroups of 61 IgA nephropathy cases (all P>0.05), and there was no correlation between Lee grading and renal elastic modulus values ( P>0.05). There was no statistically significant correlation analysis between the renal elastic modulus value and the glomerular sclerosis rate, the degree of mesangial cell and matrix proliferation, and the percentage of renal tubular atrophy area (all P>0.05). Conclusions:SWE is expected to provide new imaging diagnostic indicators for monitoring pathological damage factors in PGN. SWE may not be able to efficiently monitor the pathological progression of IgA nephropathy.