Ultrasound Elastography - Review of Techniques and Its Clinical Applications in Pediatrics - Part 2

Abstract

Sonoelastography is a novel technique that uses ultrasound waves to assess the elasticity of tissues noninvasively. It provides an ultrasound-based method to detect and display the relative stiffness of tissue. The main principle of sonoelastography is the measurement of tissue distortion in response to external compression. Changes in elasticity and tissues deformation elicited by compression are measured, processed and then shown in real time presentation with color-coded elastograms. Most of the elastography applications are well known and have been described in detail in adults, e.g. evaluation of liver fibrosis or thyroid nodules. Similarly, most of sonoelastographic studies are based on groups of adults. The purpose of this review article is to bring this technology closer to pediatric clinicians and to summarize some of its current clinical applications that are being pursued. In this part we take into consideration utility of elastography in evaluation pathologies of musculoskeletal system, lymphatic nodes, thyroid, kidneys in pediatric patients and also elastography of placenta (Adv Clin Exp Med 2015, 24, 4, 725-730).

Ultrasound Elastography of the Neonatal Brain: Preliminary Study

“…In adults, clinical applications of elastography have included evaluation of nodules and masses in the breast and thyroid to predict malignancy, as harder lesions are more likely to be malignant . In pediatric patients, more accurate lesion and tissue natures in organs, including the liver, kidney, thyroid, and lymph nodes, can be derived by elastography . Among many organs, elastography of the liver is the most developed application in the pediatric population and is widely used to show liver fibrosis in nonalcoholic fatty liver disease or biliary atresia …”

“…5,6 In pediatric patients, more accurate lesion and tissue natures in organs, including the liver, kidney, thyroid, and lymph nodes, can be derived by elastography. 7,8 Among many organs, elastography of the liver is the most developed application in the pediatric population and is widely used to show liver fibrosis in nonalcoholic fatty liver disease 9 or biliary atresia. 10 For neonates, cranial sonography is one of the most effective tools available to diagnose brain disease.…”

Shear-Wave Elastography—Diagnostic Value in Children with Chronic Autoimmune Thyroiditis

“…The operator should not apply any pressure on the probe and the patient is kindly asked to hold the breath for a few seconds. The region of interest (ROI) is placed in the middle of the thyroid and the mean, minimum and maximum stiffness are calculated by the ultrasound software [15,16]. There are currently numerous studies that have shown the usefulness of elastography in differentiating malignant thyroid lesions from benign ones with excellent results [17,18].The usefulness of thyroid elastography in the evaluation of diffuse thyroid pathology was also studied [19,20], but at the present there are insufficient data regarding the performance of elastography in the examination of children and adolescents diagnosed with CAT.…”

Automatic Frame Selection Using MLP Neural Network in Ultrasound Elastography

“…The data used for training and testing the algorithm includes both phantom and in vivo data. For the phantom data used in this paper, 4 040GSE, 039 and 059 at different locations. 3,290 pairs out of the total data were used for training and validation with a ratio of 80:20, and the remaining data was used for testing.…”