Elastography of the Kidney

Non-invasive characterization of renal parenchymal diseases is a challenge for nephrologists. Imaging could play a major role in the future for that purpose but our techniques still require more validation in terms of diagnosis or prognosis. To now, imaging of the kidney has been mainly based on morphological evaluation of the parenchyma and intrarenal vasculature by using ultrasound (US) sonography and Doppler, computed tomography (CT) or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Besides these morphological aspects, functional and structural parameters become more and more accessible using US and MRI. Whereas functional parameters are essentially provided by MRI, as perfusion, filtration, oxygenation and diffusion, structural parameters can be provided by both, as elastography.