An evaluation with shear wave elastography of kidney elasticity in patients with familial Mediterranean fever

Purpose To investigate the changes in kidney elasticity in patients with familial Mediterranean fever using the non-invasive diagnostic method of shear wave elastography (SWE). Methods The kidney elasticity of 35 FMF patients and 23 healthy control subjects was evaluated with SWE. The relationships were evaluated of the SWE values with eGFR, microproteinuria, FMF severity score, number of attacks per month, and colchicine doses of the FMF patients. Results The kidney stiffness and velocity values of the FMF patients were found to be higher than those of the control group (p < 0.001). A negative correlation was found between the renal stiffness and velocity values and the colchicine dose (r = -0.48, p = 0.004, and r = -0.50, p = 0.003, respectively). Conclusion The results of the current study demonstrated that the SWE values of the FMF patients were significantly higher than those of the control group. SWE can be used as an alternative method in the follow up of FMF patients. In addition, a negative correlation was determined between the colchicine dose and renal stiffness. This suggests that SWE values could be used in the adjustments of colchicine doses. However, there is a need for further studies with greater numbers of patients to support this hypothesis.