Elastic ultrasound in children: What you need to know

The article was professionally consulted by Doctor Trinh Le Hong Minh - Radiologist - Radiology Department - Vinmec Central Park International General Hospital.

Tissue elastography has been widely used in the past few years in adults, and is a promising imaging tool in children. Tissue elastography helps to accurately assess the damaged tissue, thereby narrowing the indication for biopsy without missing the lesion.

Tissue elastography is a method to help evaluate the stiffness of tissue through the degree of elasticity of the tissue when subjected to mechanical force. When the ultrasonic transducer is pressed with a certain force to act on the damaged tissue (for semi-static elastography or beam emission for dynamic elastography), the tissue components will displacement, deformation, ultrasound will record these deformations and code them with colors called elastic maps. Based on the elastic map, the doctor can quantify the degree of stiffness of the tissue areas.
It is important to evaluate the severity of the pathological tissues, the more malignant the tissue, the higher the stiffness. Once the stiffness of the damaged tissue is assessed, the doctor will have more information to accurately assess the nature of that tissue. Tissue elastography is considered a turning point in the ultrasound industry, allowing to evaluate the properties of the damaged tissue, helping to narrow the indications for biopsy without missing the lesion.
Tissue elastography has a particularly important role in the quick and accurate diagnosis of tumors with high stiffness according to the elastic pattern and elastic value. Research results have shown that, from tissue elastography and TIRADS classification, cancer diagnosis has a sensitivity of 91.7%, a specificity of 98.3%.

Tissue elastography has been widely used in the past few years in adults, and is a promising tool for imaging in children. This technique has proven effective in liver imaging, especially in children with chronic liver disease with fibrosis.
Compared with adults, when performing elastography in children, the doctor will note a number of issues such as:
Choosing the right ultrasound probe for the child's size Characteristics of age and size anatomy, pathological differences Child cooperation

Elastography in adults is often used to image the breast and liver. However, according to many studies, so far, ultrasound for children has only been used in imaging diagnostics of liver diseases.

There were no differences between boys and girls for the values ​​of tissue elasticity ultrasound.

Children are instructed to lie on their back slightly to the left, breathing gently, right hand behind the head. The doctor sat on the right side of the child, facing the child and the device screen, holding the transducer in his right hand.
The technique is performed in about 10 minutes with at least 10 valid measurements. The machine will analyze and calculate the average parameter. From the results obtained, the doctor will assess the extent and nature of tissue damage.
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