Copyright: ©Author(s) 2026. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license. No commercial re-use. See permissions. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc.
Renal elastography in kidney disease: Current evidence, limitations, and future directions
José Luis Mora-Loján, Omar Farid García-Trujillo, Grecia Vélez-Hurtado, Edoardo Bermúdez-Mercado, Froylan David Martínez-Sánchez, Department of Internal Medicine, Manuel Gea González General Hospital, Mexico City 14080, Ciudad de México, Mexico
Fernanda Pacheco-Salazar, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Coyocan 04360, Ciudad de México, Mexico
Joana Balderas-Juarez, Department of Nephrology, Manuel Gea González General Hospital, Mexico City 14080, Ciudad de México, Mexico
Author contributions: Martínez-Sánchez FD, Mora-Loján JL, and García-Trujillo OF contributed equally to the conception, design, and drafting of the manuscript; Martínez-Sánchez FD and Mora-Loján JL were responsible for the design and creation of the figures; Vélez-Hurtado G, Bermúdez-Mercado E, Pacheco-Salazar F, and Balderas-Juárez J contributed to the literature review and critical content revision; Martínez-Sánchez FD critically reviewed the final version and approved it for submission. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
AI contribution statement: No AI tools were involved in the development of the scientific content of this manuscript. The manuscript was conceived, written and critically revised by the authors. AI-assisted tools (like ChatGPT) were used only for minor language editing. No part of the manuscript (Abstract, Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion or Conclusion) was produced entirely by AI. AI tools were not used for data analysis, study design or interpretation of results. No images or figures included in this manuscript were generated by AI.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
Corresponding author: Froylan David Martínez-Sánchez, MD, Professor, Department of Internal Medicine, Manuel Gea González General Hospital, Calz. de Tlalpan 4800, Belisario Domínguez Secc 16, Mexico City 14080, Ciudad de México, Mexico.
Received: February 7, 2026
Revised: February 22, 2026
Accepted: May 18, 2026
Published online: September 25, 2026
Processing time: 187 Days and 10.3 Hours
Revised: February 22, 2026
Accepted: May 18, 2026
Published online: September 25, 2026
Processing time: 187 Days and 10.3 Hours
Core Tip
Core Tip: Renal elastography is a non-invasive tool for assessing tissue stiffness and may help detect structural kidney injury earlier than traditional blood and imaging markers. But unlike the liver, kidney stiffness is greatly affected by perfusion and hemodynamic variables, making interpretation difficult. Currently, the evidence is heterogeneous, and there are no defined thresholds that limit its use as a single diagnostic tool. Elastography should preferably be combined with clinical, functional, and imaging data in a multimodal approach to improve the non-invasive assessment of kidney disease.