Endoscopic ultrasound (EUS)-guided elastography is an advanced imaging technique designed to improve assessment of lesion characteristics and disease diagnosis. It allows real-time assessment of tissue stiffness and is currently available in the form of strain elastography (SE) and shear wave elastography (SWE). While EUS-guided SE has high sensitivity for diagnosing malignant solid pancreatic lesions, its specificity remains modest. SWE is a novel technology currently available on the EUS platform. Promising data have been reported on the utility of EUS-guided SWE in various diseases of the pancreas and liver. This review aims to discuss the applications of EUS-guided SE and SWE in pancreatic and liver diseases.
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EFFECTIVENESS OF SHEAR WAVE ELASTOGRAPHY FOR PREOPERATIVE ASSESSMENT OF PANCREATIC FIBROSIS IN CHRONIC PANCREATITIS V. O. Shaprynskyi, Yu. A. Punko Kharkiv Surgical School.2026; (1): 40. CrossRef
Pancreatic cancers have a poor prognosis, and their incident rates have risen. Endoscopic ultrasonography (EUS) is an efficient and reliable diagnostic modality for pancreatic lesions, providing high spatial resolution. However, while EUS helps to detect minor pancreatic lesions, nearly all solid pancreatic lesions are hypoechoic, which creates difficulty in making differential diagnoses of pancreatic lesions. When diagnosing pancreatic lesions, the performance of image-enhanced EUS techniques is essential, such as EUS elastography or contrast-enhanced harmonic EUS (CH-EUS). CH-EUS diagnosis is based on assessing the vascularity of lesions, whereas tissue elasticity is measured via EUS elastography. Elastography is either strain or shear-wave, depending on the different mechanical properties being evaluated. The usefulness of enhanced EUS techniques is demonstrated in this review for the differential diagnosis of pancreatic lesions, including solid and cystic lesions, and pancreatic cancer staging.
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Background /Aims: Shear wave elastography (SWE) is used for liver fibrosis staging based on stiffness measurements. It can be performed using endoscopic ultrasound (EUS) or a transabdominal approach. Transabdominal accuracy can be limited in patients with obesity because of the thick abdomen. Theoretically, EUS-SWE overcomes this limitation by internally assessing the liver. We aimed to define the optimal technique for EUS-SWE for future research and clinical use and compare its accuracy with that of transabdominal SWE.
Methods Benchtop study: A standardized phantom model was used. The compared variables included the region of interest (ROI) size, depth, and orientation and transducer pressure.
Porcine study: Phantom models with varying stiffness values were surgically implanted between the hepatic lobes.
Results For EUS-SWE, a larger ROI size of 1.5 cm and a smaller ROI depth of 1 cm demonstrated a significantly higher accuracy. For transabdominal SWE, the ROI size was nonadjustable, and the optimal ROI depth ranged from 2 to 4 cm. The transducer pressure and ROI orientation did not significantly affect the accuracy. There were no significant differences in the accuracy between transabdominal SWE and EUS-SWE in the animal model. The variability among the operators was more pronounced for the higher stiffness values. Small lesion measurements were accurate only when the ROI was entirely situated within the lesion.
Conclusions We defined the optimal viewing windows for EUS-SWE and transabdominal SWE. The accuracy was comparable in the non-obese porcine model. EUS-SWE may have a higher utility for evaluating small lesions than transabdominal SWE.
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Ultrasound elastography (USE) of the pancreas allows pancreatic tissue stiffness assessment by virtual palpation. Two main types of USE are used. For the pancreas strain elastography applying by endoscopic ultrasound has been established for the characterisation of small solid pancreatic lesions (SPL). In larger SPL >30 mm the results are less convincing mainly due to the heterogenicity of the lesions but also by concomitant changes of the surrounding pancreatic parenchyma. The current role of shear wave elastography has to be determined. This article reviews the current use of elastography of the pancreas.
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