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Application of Ultrasound Elastography for Chronic Allograft Dysfunction in Kidney Transplantation
Author(s) -
Wang Zijie,
Yang Haiwei,
Suo Chuanjian,
Wei Jifu,
Tan Ruoyun,
Gu Min
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
journal of ultrasound in medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.574
H-Index - 91
eISSN - 1550-9613
pISSN - 0278-4297
DOI - 10.1002/jum.14221
Subject(s) - medicine , transient elastography , fibrosis , kidney transplantation , elastography , transplantation , liver transplantation , ultrasound , radiology , pathology , surgery , liver fibrosis
Interstitial fibrosis is the main characteristic of chronic allograft dysfunction, which remains the key factor affecting long‐term allograft survival after kidney transplantation. Ultrasound elastography (UE), including real‐time elastography, transient elastography, and acoustic radiation force impulse, has been applied widely in breast, thyroid, and liver diseases, especially in the assessment of liver fibrosis. Recently, numerous studies have reported the efficacy of UE methods in evaluating renal allograft fibrosis. This review aims to investigate the clinical applications, limitations, and future roles of UE in current clinical practice in light of changing management paradigms. In current clinical practice, UE methods, especially transient elastographic measurement, appear to be useful for ruling out fibrosis but do not have sufficient accuracy to distinguish between various stages of allograft fibrosis. Moreover, there remain considerable issues to be solved for the application of UE in kidney transplantation. Thus, UE methods cannot replace the crucial role of renal allograft biopsy in the diagnosis and evaluation of allograft fibrosis in kidney transplantation. Perhaps UE methods could be of more importance in the long‐term observation and evaluation of allograft fibrosis during follow‐up.