Strain Wave Elastography Imaging for the Evaluation of Pancreas in Healthy Volunteers

Objective: The objective of this study is to evaluate the normal elastography values of the three anatomical regions (head, corpus, and tail) of the pancreas in the normal adult population using strain elastography (SE) imaging. Methods: The study included 93 (35 males and 58 females) healthy volunteers. In the healthy volunteers, we semi-quantitatively assessed the pancreatic elasticity by measuring the SE images based on age and gender in the healthy individuals. We also compared the elasticity measurements with respect to gender and age. A threshold value was derived for the healthy volunteers. Results: In the healthy volunteers, the strain ratio (SR) values were compared with respect to gender and age (before and after 40 years). The elastography values were determined separately for each region of the pancreas. Then, the elastography values before and after the age of 40 years were determined. Importantly, we compared the pancreatic elastography values between the genders, pancreatic areas, and before and after the age of 40 years. The significance value of p was taken at 0.05. As a result, there was no significant difference between males and females. The average SR values in women and men were 1.86 +/- 0.98 (0.26-4.54) and 1.76 +/- 1.20 (0.43-5.26), respectively. There was no significant difference between the SR values measured with respect to age before and after 40 years (p=0.293). The average SR value did not differ between woman and men (p=0.751). Only the measurements of pancreas corpus were slightly different before and after the age of 40 years (p=0.018). Conclusion: SE imaging can be used as an efficient technique for the evaluation of pancreatic elasticity. This study determined the normal elasticity values of the pancreas in healthy volunteers. Information obtained from the healthy adults can serve as a baseline against which pancreatic diseases can be examined in clinical practice. Advances in knowledge: Designing the value of SR of pancreas parenchyma in healthy volunteers will lead to further elastography studies that can be used in the differential diagnosis of pathological tissues in the pancreatic tissue, leading to future monitoring of other pathologies.