Liver and kidney ultrasound elastography in children and young adults with hypertension or chronic kidney disease

• Published in: Pediatric nephrology (Berlin, West) Vol. 38; no. 10; pp. 3379 - 3387
• Main Authors: Golob Jancic, Sonja, Mocnik, Mirjam, Marcun Varda, Natasa
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 01.10.2023; Springer; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Body weight; Cardiovascular diseases; Children; Chronic kidney failure; Diagnosis; Evaluation; Health aspects; Hypertension; Kidney diseases; Liver; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Nephrology; Obesity; Original Article; Overweight; Pediatrics; Risk factors; Ultrasonic imaging; Ultrasound; Ultrasound imaging; Urology; Young adults; Slovenia; Obesity; Ultrasound elastography; Young adults; Children; Liver; Kidney
• DOI: 10.1007/s00467-023-05984-0
• ISSN: 0931-041X

Background Ultrasound elastography is a research method increasingly used to measure tissue elasticity. The aim of the study was to assess its usability in pediatric patients with either chronic kidney disease (CKD) or hypertension. Methods A total of 46 patients with CKD (group 1), 50 patients with hypertension (group 2), and 33 healthy participants as the control group were included. In all, we performed studies assessing their cardiovascular risk along with liver and kidney elastography. Results Liver elastography parameters were increased compared to those in the control group (1.49 m/s, p  = 0.007, in group 1 and 1.52 m/s, p  < 0.001, in group 2, vs. 1.41 m/s among controls). Kidney elastography parameters were significantly higher in group 2 (1.9 m/s, p  = 0.001, and 1.9 m/s, p  = 0.003, in each kidney) when compared to group 1 (1.79 m/s and 1.81 m/s). Additionally, all participants were divided according to overweight/obesity and normal weight status, where both liver (1.53 m/s vs. 1.45 m/s, p  < 0.001) and kidney parameters (1.96 m/s and 1.92 m/s vs. 1.81 m/s and 1.84 m/s, p  = 0.002) were significantly higher in the group of overweight/obese subjects. Conclusions Ultrasound elastography of the liver and kidney is feasible in pediatric patients with either CKD or hypertension, showing increased liver stiffness parameters in both groups, further aggravated by obesity. In obese patients with CKD, kidney stiffness also increased indicating a negative effect of clustering cardiovascular risk factors leading to decreased kidney elasticity. Further research is warranted. Graphical abstract A higher resolution version of the Graphical abstract is available as Supplementary information