JSUM ultrasound elastography practice guidelines: pancreas

Ultrasound elastography is a relatively new diagnostic technique for measuring the elasticity (hardness) of tissue. Eleven years have passed since the debut of elastography. Various elastography devices are currently being marketed by manufacturers under different names. Pancreatic elastography can be used not only with transabdominal ultrasonography but also with endoscopic ultrasonography, but some types of elastography are difficult to perform for the pancreas. These guidelines aim to classify the various types of elastography into two major categories depending on the differences in the physical quantity (strain, shear wave), and to present the evidence for pancreatic elastography and how to use pancreatic elastography in the present day. But the number of reports on ultrasound elastography for the pancreas is still small, and there are no reports on some elastography devices for the pancreas. Therefore, these guidelines do not recommend methods of imaging and analysis by elastography device.