Diagnostic value of acustic radiation force impulse imaging in the assessment of salivary gland involvement in primary Sjögren's sydrome.

Abstract

The aim of this study is to investigate the diagnostic value of Acoustic Radiation Force Impulse (ARFI) imagingin the assessment of salivary gland involvement in primary Sjögren's syndrome (pSS). Twenty fivepatients with pSS and 25 healthy volunteers were included. First, echostructures and the thickness of the submandibular andparotid glands were evaluated by B-mode ultrasonography. Then, ARFI imaging with Virtual Touch Quantification® wasperformed. Ten independent shear wave velocity measurements were taken from each gland. Finally, the mean shear wavevelocity (SWV) values were calculated, and used for further analysis. The mean SWV values of parotid and submandibularglands were significantly higher in the pSS patients than in the healthy control group (p<0.001). The cut-off of SWVvalues were calculated to be 1.98 m/s for submandibular glands, and 1.93 m/s for parotid glands. In pSS patients, the meanSWV values of parotid glands were higher than those of the submandibular glands (p<0.001) and no statistically significantrelationships between symptom duration or the degree of xerostomia and mean SWV values of parotid and submandibularglands were found (all p>0.005). Our findings indicate that ARFI imaging may provide a non-invasive, simpleand fast means of assessment of glandular impairment as an alternative test when other salivary gland tests are inconclusive orcannot be performed. ARFI may be a valuable adjunct for the clinical diagnosis of pSS.