This manuscript describes the use of ultrasound elastography, with the exception of liver applications, and represents an update of the 2013 EFSUMB (European Federation of Societies for Ultrasound in Medicine and Biology) Guidelines and Recommendations on the clinical use of elastography.

Aims: The aim of the study was to evaluate the correlations between clinical symptoms (pain), physical examination, ultrasound (US), and radiological findings in patients with bilateral knee osteoarthritis (OA). Material and methods: Knee pain was appreciated during medial and lateral palpation of each knee joint and using visual analogue scale (VAS) and The Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis Index (WOMAC). US evaluation (osteophytes, meniscal protrusion, synovial fluid, femoral hyaline cartilage thickness) and radiological assessment (osteophytes, femoral-tibial space, Kellgren-Lawrence [K-L] score, enthesopathies) were performed by two examiners blinded to the clinical results and to each other. All these findings were scored with a five-point scale. Results: A total of 52 consecutive patients aged 63.44±9.49 were examined, 33 (80.5%) being females. In patients with bilateral knee OA the pain, evaluated by WOMAC score and VAS, was correlated with the presence of osteophytes and cartilage thickness but no association with medial meniscal protrusion and effusion was demonstrated. Pain produced by palpation of the knee was strongly associated with the presence of medial osteophytes. VAS and WOMAC scores increased with the severity of radiological and US findings. The presence of osteophytes and articular cartilage damage at US examination were strongly and positively correlated with radiological K-L score. US examiners agreement was good for osteophytes and moderate for meniscal protrusion, cartilage damage, and synovial fluid. The cartilage damage score was the only independent predictor for VAS scale; for WOMAC score the sex, cartilage damage, the presence of medial osteophytes and lateral meniscal protrusion were the independent predictors. Conclusion: Pain intensity was correlated with the severity of US findings, cartilage damage score being an independent predictor for both VAS and WOMAC scores. Medial osteophytes and lateral meniscal protrusion and are independent predictors for WOMAC score.

Inclusion body myositis (IBM) is an acquired, late-onset inflammatory myopathy, with both inflammatory and degenerative pathogenesis. Although idiopathic inflammatory myopathies may be associated with malignancies, IBM is generally not considered paraneoplastic. Many studies of malignancy in inflammatory myopathies did not include IBM patients. Indeed, IBM is often diagnosed only after around 5 years from onset, while paraneoplastic myositis is generally defined as the co-occurrence of malignancy and myopathy within 1 to 3 years of each other. Nevertheless, a significant association with large granular lymphocyte leukemia has been recently described in IBM, and there are reports of cancer-associated IBM. We review the pathogenic mechanisms supposed to be involved in IBM and outline the common mechanisms in IBM and malignancy, as well as the therapeutic perspectives. The terminally differentiated, CD8+ highly cytotoxic T cells expressing NK features are central in the pathogenesis of IBM and, paradoxically, play a role in some cancers as well. Interferon gamma plays a central role, mostly during the early stages of the disease. The secondary mitochondrial dysfunction, the autophagy and cell cycle dysregulation, and the crosstalk between metabolic and mitogenic pathways could be shared by IBM and cancer. There are intermingled subcellular mechanisms in IBM and neoplasia, and probably their co-existence is underestimated. The link between IBM and cancers deserves further interest, in order to search for efficient therapies in IBM and to improve muscle function, life quality, and survival in both diseases.

Aim: High resolution imaging methods detect a spectrum of inflammatory-like and structural modifications at joint and tendon level in healthy subjects. The knowledge of their extent and degree is important when subclinical disease activity (implying therapy reassessment) must be differentiated from normality. Musculoskeletal ultrasound (MSUS) evaluation may be challenging even for experts when borderline or low grade lesions are present. Our objective was to analyse the frequency of inflammatory-like lesions in hand joint and tendons in healthy young subjects and to evaluate the concordance between MSUS and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) findings. Material and methods: Ten healthy young women (age range 24-32 years) clinically asymptomatic (joints and tendons) were selected to have bilateral hand MSUS and MRI evaluation. Based on current definitions, synovitis/tenosynovitis-like lesions, erosions, osteophytes and bone edema were quantified and concordance between the two imaging methods was calculated. Results: Overall, both imaging evaluation methods showed a low frequency of inflammatory-like and structural lesions. No joint presented power Doppler signal or erosions. No abnormalities suggestive for inflammatory or structural pathology were detected at the tendon compartments level. No erosions and no signs of osteitis were detected. The concordance between MSUS and MRI findings was high except for the wrist area. Conclusion: MSUS was demonstrated to be a very accurate imaging method, mostly for hand tendon evaluation. This would allow a better discrimination between normality and pathologic findings, adding supplementary information.

Background Cutaneous melanoma is the most deadly of skin neoplasms. Few studies have investigated the role of elastography characteristics so the ability of elastography in the differentiation of thin and thick cutaneous melanoma is still narrow. Purpose To investigate the accuracy of elastography in differentiating thin and thick melanoma, by measuring strain ratio (SR) between the lesion and adjacent dermis and hypodermis. Material and Methods We investigated by ultrasound and elastography 52 melanoma lesions in 49 patients. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve method was used to investigate the accuracy of ultrasound and elastographic measurement of SR to surrounding tissue, in the differentiation of thin and thick melanomas. The histopathological measurement of lesions depth called Breslow index was the golden standard test. Results Areas under the curve (AUC) showed low accuracy for SR to hypodermis in distinguishing between thin melanomas and others (AUC = 0.739, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.508–0.970]) with a cut-off value of 0.950, being the only statistically significant result in matter of elastographic measurements. Highly statistically significant results were obtained for B-mode ultrasound depth measurements of the lesion, with an AUC = 0.970 (95% CI = 0.927–1.0) in discriminating thin melanomas of others and 0.951 (95% CI = 0.869–1.0) in discriminating thick melanomas of other types. Conclusion Despite the appearance that SR may correlate with the depth of the lesion, elastography, by measuring the SRs to dermis and hypodermis, does not have enough accuracy in distinguishing thin and thick melanoma.

Biological soft tissues are characterized by viscoelastic properties. The propagation of shear waves within tissues is influenced by both elasticity, which is linked to the shear wave speed, and viscosity, which is linked to the shear wave dispersion. This study aimed to functionally assess the parotid glands (PG) and submandibular glands (SMG) in a group of 40 healthy subjects using the novel Viscosity PLUS (Vi.PLUS) and 2D Shear-Wave Elastography PLUS (2D-SWE.PLUS) techniques. The viscosity and stiffness of PG and SMG were measured before and after gustatory stimulation with a sialagogue agent (commercially available lemon juice) using the new SuperSonic MACH 30 ultrasound system equipped with a curvilinear C6-1X transducer. PG presented a mean basal viscosity and elasticity of 2.10 ± 0.19 Pa.s and 11.32 ± 1.91 kPa, respectively, which significantly increased poststimulation to 2.39 ± 0.17 Pa.s (p < 0.001) and 12.58 ± 1.92 kPa (p < 0.001), respectively. SMG did not present statistically increased values of viscosity and elasticity following stimulation (2.31 ± 015 Pa.s vs. 2.37 ± 0.18 Pa.s, p = 0.086, and 10.40 ± 1.64 kPa vs. 10.90 ± 1.98 kPa, p = 0.074, respectively). Vi.PLUS measurements presented a good positive correlation with 2D-SWE.PLUS values for PG and SMG, before and after stimulation. Gender and BMI were not confounding factors for these two parameters. Vi.PLUS represents an innovative non-invasive imaging technique that, together with 2D-SWE.PLUS proves to be useful in functionally assessing the major salivary glands in healthy subjects.

Viscosity and elasticity represent biomechanical properties of soft tissues that suffer changes during the pathophysiological alterations of the tissue in various conditions. This study aimed to determine average viscosity values for the thyroid gland and to evaluate the potential influences of age, gender and body mass index (BMI), using a recent technique Viscosity Plane-wave UltraSound (Vi PLUS). A total of 85 healthy Caucasian volunteers (56 women and 29 men, median age of 29 years, range 17–81 years) were included in this prospective monocentric study conducted between January 2022 and March 2022. Thyroid viscosity was measured using the SuperSonic MACH 30® Ultrasound system (Aixplorer, SuperSonic Imagine, Aix-en-Provence, France), equipped with a curvilinear C6-IX transducer that allows simultaneous quantification of the viscosity and stiffness. The mean thyroid viscosity measurement value was 2.63 ± 0.47 Pa.s. No statistically significant differences were detected between the left and the right lobes of the thyroid gland. A significant positive correlation was found between thyroid viscosity and elasticity (r = 0.685, p < 0.0001). There was no statistically significant correlation between body mass index (BMI) and thyroid gland viscosity and elasticity values (r = 0.215, p = 0.053; r = 0.106, p = 0.333). No correlation between viscosity and gender was established (p > 0.05). Vi PLUS represents a new and promising ultrasonographic technique that can provide helpful information for evaluating the thyroid parenchyma, similar to elastography. The effect of the potential confounding factors on thyroid viscosity was negligible, except for BMI.

Viscosity is a novel parameter, recently introduced in the use of elastographic techniques, correlating to shear-wave dispersion. The purpose of this study was to provide normal reference viscosity values for the peripheral muscles in healthy volunteers. This prospective study included 38 subjects who underwent US examinations between November 2021 and January 2022. Measurements were taken on the calf and the deltoid muscles in both pre- and post-contraction states. The age range was 21–29 years, with a median of 26 years. The SWE and ViPLUS values in the deltoid muscles were significantly higher than in the soleus muscles in both pre- and post-contraction sets (p = 0.002). There were statistically significant differences between the pre- and post-contraction values for both the SWE and ViPLUS values in the subgroup analysis. The ICC estimates and the 95% confidence intervals were based on a mean rating (k = 2), an absolute agreement, and a two-way random-effects model, demonstrating excellent agreement between the measurements taken by the two examiners.