Quantification of Pediatric Burn Scar Stiffness Using Acoustic Radiation Force Impulse Ultrasound Elastography

The purpose of this study was to quantify the stiffness of hypertrophic scars using acoustic radiation force impulse ultrasound elastography. Sixteen pediatric patients with hypertrophic scars resulting from burn injuries participated in this study (mean age: 5.13, standard deviation: 3.20). Values for the elastic modulus (E) of scar and control sites were obtained. Scarred areas were found to be almost four times stiffer than control sites (scar Emean = 39.29 kPa compared with control Emean = 10.19 kPa) (p = 0.0004). Correlations between scar stiffness and clinician-reported subjective scar scale scores were not observed (rs = 0.30, p = 0.27 and rs = 0.25, p = 0.35 respectively). We found that acoustic radiation force impulse imaging can discriminate between hypertrophic scars and normal skin and should be considered a potentially valuable tool in the armamentarium of objective scar measures. Future research should focus on evaluating the technology's ability to detect scar change over time in order to determine responsiveness to treatment.