Shear wave elastography in ophthalmic diagnosis.

Shear wave elastography (SWE) is a non-invasive diagnostic imaging technique that maps the elastic properties of tissues. This modality is being increasingly developed in other areas of medicine, offering a new type of high-quality ultrasound examination, since it increases specificity and thus improves diagnostic accuracy. This method is similar to manual palpation, showing the elastic properties of biological tissues and providing a kind of reconstruction of the internal structure of soft tissues based on measurement of the response to tissue compression. In ophthalmology, it already appears promising for diagnosis and in evaluating changes in extraocular muscles and orbital tissues in patients with endocrine orbitopathy. Shear wave elastography offers three main innovations: the quantitative aspect, dimensional resolution, and real-time imaging ability. Determination of the utilization rate of this method and its inclusion in the diagnosis of endocrine orbitopathy is still a question and the object of clinical studies currently under way.