Key result
Shear wave elastography accurately discriminated between diabetic nephropathy patients and healthy controls at a cutoff of >10.5 kPa with 100% sensitivity and 100% specificity.
Why the study?
Diabetes mellitus affects the kidneys and can lead to end-stage kidney disease, prompting evaluation of shear wave elastography to detect early diabetic nephropathy by measuring renal stiffness.
Does shear wave elastography accurately detect early diabetic nephropathy and differentiate between CKD stages in patients with type II diabetes?
Case-Control (n=80)
No
Does shear wave elastography accurately detect early diabetic nephropathy and differentiate between CKD stages in patients with type II diabetes?
Effect estimate: AUC 1.000
Absolute Event Rate: 40.7% vs 8.2%
p-value: p=<0.001
Shear wave elastography is a highly sensitive and specific non-invasive imaging modality for detecting early diabetic nephropathy and differentiating between its stages.
May aid noninvasive early DN screening; leaves open need for prospective validation before clinical adoption.
BACKGROUND: Diabetes mellitus is one of the systemic diseases affecting the kidneys that eventually develop end-stage kidney disease. Shear wave elastography (SWE) is a reliable and non-invasive ultrasonography test used to determine tissue elasticity. The aim of this study is to detect early diabetic nephropathy by measuring renal stiffness using shear wave elastography (SWE), renal resistivity indices, and laboratory findings in DN patients. METHODS: Shear wave elastography and color duplex sonography assessments were performed in 60 diabetic nephropathy patients (divided according to eGFR into 3 stages: stage I-II-III diabetic nephropathy with equal groups of 20 patients in each stage) and 20 healthy age-matched control subjects. The SWE-derived mean value of the tissue stiffness, given in kilopascals (kPa), was correlated to patients' clinico-laboratory data (serum creatinine and eGFR) and resistive index. RESULTS: There is a statistically significant increase in SWE and RI in the diabetic group than control group and a statistically significant increase in SWE (mean) in CKD stage II and III when compared with CKD stage I, SWE can be used to discriminate between diabetic groups and control group at a cutoff level of > 10.5 (kPa), and also, SWE (mean) can be used to discriminate between CKD stage II and III patients at a cutoff level of > 41 (kPa), with 66.7% sensitivity and 64.9% specificity. CONCLUSION: Shear wave elastography is a sensitive, non-invasive, and specific diagnostic tool for the detection of diabetic nephropathy and differentiation between different stages of DN.
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Shaker et al. (2025) conducted a case-control in Diabetic nephropathy (n=80). Shear wave elastography (SWE) vs. Healthy controls was evaluated on Mean tissue stiffness (SWE) for detection of diabetic nephropathy (AUC 1.000, p=<0.001). Shear wave elastography accurately discriminated between diabetic nephropathy patients and healthy controls at a cutoff of >10.5 kPa with 100% sensitivity and 100% specificity.
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