Clinical Research Directory

Kidney Stiffness Measured by Ultrasound in Patients With High Blood Pressure and Healthy Volunteers

High blood pressure (hypertension) is a leading cause of kidney damage, but detecting early kidney changes remains challenging with currently available tools. This study investigates whether kidney stiffness, measured by a non-invasive ultrasound technique called shear wave elastography (SWE), differs across different subtypes of hypertension and healthy volunteers, and whether it may serve as an early marker of hypertension-related kidney damage. Adults with essential hypertension, renovascular hypertension, and primary aldosteronism, as well as healthy volunteers, undergo kidney ultrasound with SWE measurements combined with standard clinical, laboratory, and vascular assessments, with the aim of identifying the independent factors influencing kidney stiffness and evaluating its potential role as a simple, painless, and widely available imaging biomarker of kidney damage