The Shear Wave Velocity on Elastography Correlates with the Clinical Symptoms and Histopathological Features of Keloids

BACKGROUND: Keloids present as red, painful lesions causing serious functional and cosmetic problems; however, there is no consensus regarding tools for objectively evaluating keloids. To demonstrate the utility of shear wave elastography in keloids, we investigated the correlations between clinical symptoms, ultrasound shear wave velocity, and histopathological findings. METHODS: Three patients with keloids containing both red hypertrophic and mature areas were evaluated using the shear wave velocity and histopathological findings. RESULTS: The results indicate that the shear wave velocity is high in active hypertrophic areas and low in mature areas. The areas with high elastography values exhibited numerous fibrillar collagenous matrices forming a whorled pattern with hyalinized tissue on hematoxylin-eosin staining corresponding with metachromasia on toluidine blue staining. In the mature area, the collagen fibers were oriented parallel to each other without metachromasia. CONCLUSIONS: Shear wave elastography provides quantitative estimates of tissue stiffness that correlate with the clinical symptoms and histopathological findings of the keloid lesions and can be used to assess the activity of keloids.