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Role of shear wave elastography ultrasound in patients with systemic sclerosis

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Abstract

Purpose

A study of shear wave elastography (SWE) for evaluation of skin stiffness in systemic sclerosis (SSc) patients. The purpose of this study was to measure the skin stiffness and thickness in patients with scleroderma using shear wave elastography.

Methods

Prospective data collections of skin stiffness and thickness using SWE in SSc and control groups.

Results

Skin stiffness and thickness were done in 29 patients with SSc and a 29 control population using SWE on bilateral forearms. The SSc patients had thicker skin and higher stiffnesses than the control group. The mean of skin thickness and stiffness using SWE of SSc are 1.74 mm and 47.32 kPa while normal subjects were 1.5 mm and 19.5 kPa. Mean differences were 0.023 mm (95% CI 0.15–0.3, p < 0.001) and 27.82 kPa (95% CI 22.63–33.01, p < 0.001). The dorsal forearms tend to have a higher SWE than the volar forearms in SSc. No statistically significant differences between gender, age or dominancy of skin stiffness were found. SWE has a good correlation with clinical manual palpation of forearms (mRSS) with Spearman rho’s of 0.550 (p = 0.002) and 0.508 (p = 0.005) of dominant and non-dominant forearms.

Conclusion

The application of SWE can be used for evaluation of skin involvement in scleroderma patients with good correlations with the mRSS that was used in the current patients. Furthermore, SWE is a safe technique for either diagnosis or follow up.

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Availability of data and material

The datasets used and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Code availability

None.

Abbreviations

SWE:

Shear wave elastography

SSc:

Systemic sclerosis

mRSS:

Modified Rodnan skin score

kPa:

Kilopascal

DF:

Dominant forearm

NF:

Non-dominant forearm

ST:

Skin thickness

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Acknowledgements

This work was presented as poster presentation at The Royal Collage of Radiologists of Thailand (RCRT) meeting on 2016. We wish to acknowledge Professor James A. Will, for editing the manuscript via the Faculty of Medicine Publication clinic, Khon Kaen University, Thailand. And this study was granted by Faculty of Medicine, Khon Kaen university, Thailand.

Funding

This study was granted by Faculty of Medicine Khon Kaen university, Thailand (Grant Number IN58330).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Radiology, Faculty of Medicine, Khon Kaen University, Khon Kaen District, Khon Kaen, 40002, Thailand

    Panaya Tumsatan, Meenut Uscharapong & Jiraporn Srinakarin

  2. Department of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Khon Kaen University, Khon Kaen District, Khon Kaen, 40002, Thailand

    Ratanavadee Nanagara

  3. Department of Pharmaceutical Technology, Faculty of Pharmacy, Khon Kaen University, Khon Kaen, 40002, Thailand

    Watcharee Khunkitti

Authors
  1. Panaya Tumsatan
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  2. Meenut Uscharapong
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  3. Jiraporn Srinakarin
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  4. Ratanavadee Nanagara
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  5. Watcharee Khunkitti
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Contributions

All authors have read and approved the manuscript. PT: Conceptualization, Methodology, SWE examiner, Writing, Editing. MU: Data curation, SWE examiner, Writing. JS: Supervision, Visualization, Investigation. RN: Supervision, Visualization, Investigation. WK: Methodology, Visualization, Investigation.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Panaya Tumsatan.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Ethical approval

This study was a pilot study with prospective data collection which was approved by the Khon Kaen University Ethics Committee for Human Research based on the Declaration of Helsinki and the ICH Good Clinical Practice Guidelines. The reference number of ethical approval is HE581011.

Consent to participate

All SSc patients and control group persons completed the consent forms for performing SWE. Informed Consent Forms were approved by the Khon Kaen University Ethics Committee for Human Research.

Consent for publication

All images in this manuscript contain no individual personal data.

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Tumsatan, P., Uscharapong, M., Srinakarin, J. et al. Role of shear wave elastography ultrasound in patients with systemic sclerosis. J Ultrasound 25, 635–643 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40477-021-00637-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40477-021-00637-0

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