Internistic Ultrasound Service, Campus Bio-Medico University, Rome, Italy.
Department Upper and Lower Limb Surgery Unit, Campus Bio-Medico University, Rome, Italy.
Ultrasound Med Biol. 2020 Nov;46(11):3162-3167. doi: 10.1016/j.ultrasmedbio.2020.07.033. Epub 2020 Aug 28.
Information is lacking about the reliability and agreement of different shear-wave elastographic modes in the peripheral nervous system evaluation. The aim of this observational study was to evaluate reproducibility and agreement of two different shear-wave elastographic modes for measuring the sciatic nerve stiffness in patients affected by osteoarthrosis. Two sets of three measurements were conducted bilaterally on the sciatic nerve of 20 patients with point and 2-D shear-wave elastography by a unique expert sonographer. This consecutive case series study was performed in 1 mo. No significant difference was found comparing the first with the second set of evaluations (p = 0.08 for point shear-wave elastography and 0.3 for 2-D shear-wave elastography). Correlation between the two sets of measurements was good and excellent (0.799 with point shear-wave elastography and 0.877 with 2-D shear-wave elastography). Intra-class coefficient correlation between the two sets of measurements was excellent for both shear-wave elastographic modes (0.869 and 0.938, respectively); no agreement between them was demonstrated (analysis of variance [ANOVA] test: p = 0.014).Despite the lack of agreement owing to the different procedures for measuring, both shear-wave elastographic modes allow reliable stiffness measurements of the sciatic nerve and may be used to evaluate stiffness changes.
关于外周神经系统评估中不同剪切波弹性成像模式的可靠性和一致性的信息尚缺乏。本观察性研究的目的是评估两种不同的剪切波弹性成像模式在测量骨关节炎患者坐骨神经硬度时的可重复性和一致性。由一位经验丰富的超声技师对 20 名患者的双侧坐骨神经分别进行点式和 2 维剪切波弹性成像，每侧进行三组测量。这项连续病例系列研究在 1 个月内完成。第一次和第二次评估之间没有发现显著差异（点式剪切波弹性成像为 p = 0.08，2 维剪切波弹性成像为 0.3）。两组测量之间的相关性良好且为极好（点式剪切波弹性成像为 0.799，2 维剪切波弹性成像为 0.877）。两种剪切波弹性成像模式的两组测量之间的组内相关系数均为极好（分别为 0.869 和 0.938）；两组之间没有一致性（方差分析[ANOVA]检验：p = 0.014）。尽管由于测量方法不同导致缺乏一致性，但两种剪切波弹性成像模式都可以可靠地测量坐骨神经的硬度，并可用于评估硬度变化。
