Evaluation of the pancreatic tumors by transabdominal Shear Wave Elastography: preliminary results of a pilot study

To identify the mean values of Shear Wave Elastography (SWE) in pancreatic neoplasms.

This pilot case-control study was conducted in a tertiary care setting and data were collected in a prospective manner. Thirty-three subjects were included and divided into two groups: 18 healthy subjects and 15 patients with pancreatic neoplasm, from which 14 patients were diagnosed with adenocarcinoma and one with intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasia. Inclusion criteria for patients with pancreatic neoplasia were histopathological confirmation obtained by endoscopic ultrasonography (EUS) with fine needle aspiration or surgically and imaging confirmation by computed tomography with contrast enhancement. A number of minimum 5 shear wave velocity (SWV) measurements regarding each segment respectively at the tumoral level was obtained among a series of elastograms.

The mean SWV of the pancreas in the control group was 1.21±0.27 m/s. Data regarding the pathological parenchyma indicated an increase of the SWV at the tumoral (cephalic) level corresponding to 1.54±0.32 m/s, with significant statistical difference between the control batch and tumoral group, p=0.02.

Transabdominal SWE represents a surrogate but feasible method for differentiation cancer from the normal pancreatic tissue. In a clinical setting, data regarding the stiffness complementary to an ultrasound evaluation could guide high-risk patients for a close-up pancreatic monitoring.