Does diabetic early kidney damage alter renal elasticity?: An ultrasound
based 2D Shear wave elastography study
Abstract
Objectives: Kidney damage caused by type-II diabetes mellitus (DM-II)
can disturb renal elasticity. There is a paucity of data whether early
kidney damage causes kidney stiffening. This comparative study aimed to
assess kidney elasticity in patients with DM-II with or without moderate
albuminuria using ultrasound based 2D shear wave velocity (2D-SWV).
Methods: For this prospective single center study, a sample size of at
least 32 was computed. Overall 57 cases (40 DM-II subjects with no
chronic kidney disease and 17 age and sex matched healthy controls) were
included. The DM-II subjects comprised moderate albuminuria (n=22) and
no-albuminuria (n=18) subgroups. Bilateral renal parenchymal 2D-SWV
values were separately measured from upper, mid and lower portions.
Groups were compared with T test or Mann-Whitney-U test as appropriate.
Inter-reader agreement was assessed by intra-class correlation
coefficient (ICC). Results: The median age [55.5 (50-62) vs 55
(48.5-59.5) years, respectively, p=0.48] and gender rates [18 (45%)
vs 10 (58.8%) females, respectively, p= 0.34] did not differ between
DM-II and control groups. The average and individual portion 2D-SWV
values were also similar (p>0.05 for all). The average
2D-SWV values were also similar between the albuminuria vs
no-albuminuria subgroups. The interobserver agreement was good (ICC:
0.66, 95% CI: 0.19-0.88, p=0.006). Conclusion: The kidney elasticity
does not seem to be disturbed in patients with diabetes and a preserved
eGFR with or without moderate albuminuria.