Evaluation of the optic nerve using strain and shear-wave elastography in pre-eclampsia

AIM To investigate the utility of strain elastography and shear-wave elastography for assessing optic nerve involvement in pre-eclampsia. MATERIAL AND METHODS A total of 120 eyes were evaluated in 60 cases consisting of 30 participants in the pre-eclamptic and 30 participants in the non-pre-eclamptic pregnant patient group. The findings of strain and shear-wave elastography, grey-scale sonography, and optical coherence tomography were compared between the groups. RESULTS There was a statistically significant difference for the average shear-wave elastography values between groups (17.6±4.1 and 9.4±2 kPa, p p p p =0.04). The peripapillary choroidal thickness values of pre-eclamptic pregnant women were higher than that of non-pre-eclamptic pregnant women, but the difference was not significant ( p >0.05). CONCLUSION Stiffness of the optic nerve was greater in patients with pre-eclampsia in the study. Elasticity changes in the optic nerve may be generally attributed to microvascular and biomechanical changes secondary to increased hypertension in pre-eclamptic patients. Elastography could be used as assistive diagnostic techniques to evaluate the optic nerve structure changes in pre-eclampsia.