Objective To investigate the feasibility and influencing factors of sound touch elastography (STE) in detecting renal parenchymal stiffness. Methods Sixty-eight healthy volunteers underwent bilateral renal parenchyma STE examination. The success rate

variability，intra-operator repeatability of different parts of the kidneys and influencing factors were analyzed. Results (1) The number of successful detection of STE in renal parenchyma of left upper pole

left middle pole

left lower pole

right upper pole

right middle pole and right lower pole was 49

55

50

51

54

50

respectively. The detection success rates was 72.06%

80.88%

73.53%

75.00%

79.41% and 73.53% respectively; the variability was (14.66 ± 6.10)%

(12.18 ± 7.33)%

(14.66 ± 6.01)%

(15.35 ± 6.19)%

(13.21 ± 5.51)%

(17.64 ± 6.74)%; and the intra-operator repeatability were 0.86 (0.73-0.94)

0.88 (0.80-0.94)

0.78 (0.62-0.88)

0.84 (0.77-0.90)

0.82 (0.73-0.89)

0.77 (0.60-0.87). (2) The STE values of different sampling sites of renal parenchyma were (8.06 ± 1.71) kPa

(8.25 ± 1.82) kPa

(7.98 ± 1.74) kPa

(8.03 ± 1.48) kPa

(7.89 ± 1.76) kPa and (7.94 ± 1.84) kPa

respectively

with no significant difference (3) There was no significant difference in STE of middle renal parenchyma among young healthy volunteers with different age

gender

height

weight

body mass index

distance between left renal capsule and probe and sampling depth. T values were 1.08

- 1.07

- 0.79

- 0.61

- 0.33

- 1.50

0.34

0.47

respectively

with P >0.05. Conclusion The success rate and stability of double kidney STE were good

which could be used as a reliable method to evaluate renal elasticity.