Evaluation of maternal renal cortical elasticity in pregnancies with early- and late-onset preeclampsia

Abstract

Objective: The current study aimed to investigate renal cortical elasticity (RCE) in early- and late-onset preeclampsia patients and compare the results with healthy controls.

Materials and methods: The study consisted of 136 pregnant women. Three groups were identified as; the late-onset preeclampsia (LOP) group (n = 40), the early-onset preeclampsia (EOP) group (n = 32) and the control group (n = 64). RCE values were measured by point shear wave elastography (pSWE). Nine measurements were taken for each kidney and the mean of nine measurements was accepted as the mean RCE value for each kidney. The arithmetic mean of left and right RCE values was accepted as the overall RCE value of a subject. Groups were compared in terms of clinical and biochemical parameters, ultrasonography findings and pSWE values.

Results: There was a statistically significant difference between groups in terms of overall RCE values (F[2,133] = 17.96, p < .001). Post hoc comparisons indicated that both preeclampsia groups exhibited significantly higher RCE values than the control group. However, overall RCE values were not significantly different between the EOP and LOP groups. Overall RCE values were significantly and positively correlated with systolic blood pressure (r = 0.363, p < .001), diastolic blood pressure (r = 0.347, p < .001), proteinuria (r = 0.343, p < .001), serum creatinine level (r = 0.181, p = .035), serum uric acid level (r = 0.243, p = .004) and blood urea nitrogen (r = 0.27, p = .001).

Conclusion: Our study demonstrated that maternal renal cortical stiffness increased in women with preeclampsia. The increased RCE values may be indicative for the severity of preeclampsia due to positive correlations between renal cortical stiffness and systolic – diastolic blood pressure and serum creatinine level.

Keywords:

• Elasticity
• kidney
• point shear wave elastography
• preeclampsia

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.