Diagnostic performance of gray‐scale ultrasound and shear wave elastography in assessing salivary gland involvement in patients with primary Sjögren's syndrome

Abstract

Purpose To investigate the diagnostic performance of gray‐scale ultrasound (US) and shear wave elastography (SWE) for determining salivary gland involvement primary Sjögren's syndrome (pSS). Methods In this prospective study, the salivary glands of 72 healthy volunteers and 74 participants with pSS were examined by two blinded radiologists with consensus using gray‐scale US and SWE. SWE parameters were compared between groups. The area under the curve (AUC), sensitivity, and specificity of gray‐scale US and SWE was analyzed. The correlation between SWE and clinical findings was investigated. Result The SWE parameters of the parotid and submandibular glands were significantly higher in the pSS group, but did not differ significantly based on serologic assays, Schirmer test, minor salivary gland biopsy, and comorbidities. The AUC values for gray‐scale US of the salivary glands were significantly lower than the AUC values for SWE. The elasticity modulus (kPa) of parotid gland had the highest AUC value (0.937; 95% CI, 0.901–0.973), with a sensitivity of 93.2% and a specificity of 83.3%. SWE had no correlation with age, disease duration, laboratory values, or disease activity. Conclusion SWE provides excellent diagnostic performance for submandibular and parotid gland involvement in pSS and can be used to complement gray‐scale US.

Performance of salivary glands ultrasonography, shear wave elastography and their combined use for the diagnosis of primary and secondary Sjögren's syndrome

“…Shear wave elastography is a promising tool for evaluating tissue stiffness. Recently, the diagnostic value of SWE in the salivary glands of patients with SS has been evaluated in several studies 12,18 . These studies demonstrated that SWE provided excellent diagnostic performance to discriminate between patients with SS and healthy controls.…”

“…The submandibular glands were only scanned in longitudinal sections. The grading system used for diagnosing SS in the present study is presented in Table 1 12 . The grading scores of four major salivary glands were measured, respectively, and the highest score was recorded as the total score for each patient.…”