Abstract: Objective To investigate the application of virtual touch tissue imaging quantification (VTIQ) on the secondary hyperparathyroidism (SHPT). Methods A total of 107 hemodialysis patients with chronic kidney disease were recruited as the research group and were divided into 3 groups according to the serum iPTH level, group A (>300pg/ml), group B (300pg/ml～800pg/ml), and group C (≥800pg/ml). Thirty volunteers served as healthy controls. VTIQ that determined the shear wave velocity (SWV) of the parathyroid glands was performed in the 4 groups. The differences and characteristics of SWV in different groups were analyzed by the performance of comparison among groups, correlation test, and receiver operator characteristic (ROC) curve. Result SWV had no statistical significance between group A and group control (LSDt= 0.792, P=0.430), but was significantly higher in group B than in group control (LSD- t=3.518, P=0.001), and in group C than in group control (LSD-t =8.066, P＜0.001). There were also significant differences in SWV between groups A and B (LSD- t=2.830, P=0.005), groups B and C (LSD- t=4.845, P＜0.001), and groups A and C (LSD-t=7.571, P＜0.001). SWV was positively correlated with iPTH (r=0.680, P＜0.001). When we set iPTH at 300 pg/ml as the cutoff value for the diagnosis of SHPT, and at 800 pg/ml as the cutoff value for surgical treatment of SHPT, the areas under ROC curve were 0.798 and 0.842 (P＜0.001), the SWV cutoff values were 2.260 m/s and 2.720 m/s, the sensitivity of SWV value were 79.17% and 80.00%, and the
specificity of SWV value were 77.14% and 83.33%, respectively. Conclusions VTIQ can noninvasively and quantitatively assess the changes of parathyroid gland in patients with SHPT

Key words: hemodialysis, acoustic radiation force impulse, virtual touch tissue imaging quantification, Secondary Hyperparathyroidism