Acoustic Radiation Force Impulse Imaging for the Assessment of Renal Histopathology in Chronic Glomerulonephritis / 中国医学影像学杂志

ABSTRACT

Purpose To observe the change of renal parenchyma elasticity in patients with chronic glomerulonephritis (CGN), and to explore the value of acoustic radiation force impulse (ARFI) in the assessment of renal histological damages in CGN. Materials and Methods 123 patients with CGN and 27 healthy volunteers were enrolled, CGN patients were divided into three groups according to renal histologic scores: mildly, moderately, and severely impaired. Shear wave velocities (SWV) of the renal parenchyma were measured and compared in different groups, the correlation between the SWV measurements and renal fibrosis Katafuchi scores, serum creatinine (Scr) and estimated glomerular filtration rate (e-GFR) was accessed, and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves analyses were also performed to assess the value of ARFI for the diagnosis of pathology impairment degree in CGN. Results There were statistically significant differences in SWV measurements between each CGN patient group and the control group (F=16.592, P<0.01); the mean SWV in patients with severe kidney impairment was significant lower than that of mildly impaired, moderately impaired, and the control groups (P<0.001). SWV measurements correlated significantly with renal fibrosis Katafuchi scores (r=-0.481, P<0.01), Scr (r=-0.441, P<0.01), and e-GFR (r=0.546, P<0.01); ROC analyses indicated that the sensitivity was 63.4%, 71.4%, 93.8%, specificity was 77.8%, 71.3%, 79.9%, and the area under the curve was 0.730, 0.738 and 0.870, when using the optimal cut-off value of 2.65 m/s for the diagnosis of mildly impaired kidneys, 2.50 m/s for moderately impaired kidneys, and 2.34 m/s for severely impaired kidneys, respectively. Conclusion ARFI is expected to become an effective tool for non-invasive evaluating of renal histological fibrosis in CGN patients.