Private Shear Wave Elastography in London

Shear wave elastography, often shortened to SWE or Shearwave Elastography, is an ultrasound technique that measures how stiff a tissue is. During a normal ultrasound the machine sends a short focused push into the tissue, then listens for the shear waves that ripple out sideways from that push. The speed of those waves is turned into a stiffness value, reported in kilopascals (kPa).

At London Private Ultrasound we use SWE alongside conventional ultrasound shear wave elastography imaging for the liver, thyroid, breast and testis, and the kPa result is read together with the greyscale images, your symptoms, medical history and any previous scans.

The probe sends a small acoustic radiation force push into the tissue you are being scanned for, which sets off tiny shear waves at right angles to the ultrasound beam. Softer tissue lets those waves travel more slowly, stiffer tissue lets them travel faster, and the machine calculates a stiffness value from the wave speed.

It reports that number in kilopascals (kPa) and, on 2D shear wave elastography, colour-codes the region so the sonographer can see the stiffness pattern across the whole area rather than a single point. You will not feel the push, and nothing about the appointment feels different from a normal ultrasound.

Both are quantitative ultrasound elastography techniques that report tissue stiffness in kPa. Point shear wave elastography (pSWE) measures stiffness from a single small region of interest, one location at a time. 2D shear wave elastography samples stiffness across a larger area at once and displays it as a colour map, which helps the sonographer position the region of interest away from vessels, ribs and other artefacts.

In practice, 2D SWE is what most modern liver, thyroid, breast and testicular protocols now use, because it gives more measurement flexibility and better quality control. Which technique your scan uses depends on the machine and the organ, and both are covered by the SWE bundles on this page.

FibroScan (transient elastography) and shear wave elastography both estimate liver stiffness in kPa, but they use different technology and are not always interchangeable. FibroScan is a dedicated bedside device that uses a mechanical vibration through a single probe and does not show you a live ultrasound image, so measurements are taken blind to the internal anatomy.

Shear wave elastography is built into a full ultrasound machine, so the sonographer sees the liver on the screen, avoids ribs and vessels, and can pick a clean measurement box in real time. SWE also lets us look at the thyroid, breast and testis in the same appointment, which FibroScan cannot. For most patients on our pathway, a liver ultrasound + SWE at £499 is preferred over FibroScan, because you get a full liver ultrasound and the stiffness measurement together, in one visit, from one clinician.

At London Private Ultrasound, thyroid, liver and testicular ultrasound bundled with shear wave elastography are £499 each. Breast ultrasound + SWE is £539. Standalone shear wave elastography, without a fresh conventional ultrasound, is available from £360 (breast standalone £400) and is only offered if you already have a recent, clinically suitable ultrasound report for us to compare against.

Every price includes the appointment, the SWE kPa measurement, a verbal explanation in the scan room and a written report usually sent within 24 hours. Compare what is actually in the price rather than the headline number when you are looking at shear wave elastography cost quotes elsewhere, because standalone measurements without a reporting clinician are not the same product.

No. You can book directly online, by phone on 020 7101 3377, or on WhatsApp. Bring any previous imaging, blood tests, biopsy reports or specialist letters with you if you have them, because they help the sonographer read your SWE result in the right clinical context.

If you have already had a conventional ultrasound elsewhere in the last few months, mention it at booking, because a standalone SWE add-on may be enough rather than a full repeat scan.

London Private Ultrasound offers shear wave elastography for the liver, thyroid, breast and testis, each combined with a conventional ultrasound of the same organ.

Musculoskeletal SWE (for muscle, tendon and other soft tissue stiffness assessment) and prostate shear wave elastography are not currently offered as bookable pathways. If you have been asked to have SWE of an organ outside our current list, call the clinic and we will tell you honestly whether we can help or point you at a service that can.

Our shear wave elastography machine is a premium ultrasound platform from one of the major manufacturers. GE, Canon, Philips and Siemens all make clinically validated SWE systems (GE shear wave elastography, Canon shear wave elastography and Philips shear wave elastography are used interchangeably in the literature), and the platforms are broadly comparable for the organs on this page.

The kPa cut-offs the reporting clinician uses are manufacturer-appropriate, which matters, because thresholds published for one platform should not be applied blindly to results from a different one. If your previous imaging was on a specific machine, tell us at booking so we can note the platform in your report.

Broadly, most healthy adults produce a liver SWE reading under about 6 kPa, with published shear wave elastography liver normal values varying slightly by manufacturer and technique. Higher values suggest progressively more fibrosis, and the ranges commonly quoted correspond to Metavir stages F0 to F4.

The exact numbers depend on the platform, the sample quality, whether you fasted and whether the underlying cause is fatty liver, viral hepatitis or something else. Because of that, your report explains the number in the context of the images and your history rather than treating one kPa reading as a diagnosis on its own. Any cut-offs mentioned in the report are the manufacturer-appropriate ones for the machine used.

Liver shear wave elastography is used to estimate liver stiffness in kPa, which correlates with the degree of fibrosis. In fatty liver disease (including MASLD and previously NAFLD), the ultrasound picks up the fatty change on the greyscale image and SWE adds a stiffness reading that helps flag whether liver fibrosis is likely to have progressed.

In viral hepatitis and other chronic liver conditions, serial SWE is used to monitor whether stiffness is stable, improving or getting worse over time. SWE does not replace liver blood tests, hepatology review or biopsy when those are clinically indicated; it sits alongside them, and the report says exactly what it does and does not tell you.

For selected breast lesions, shear wave elastography of the breast adds a stiffness reading in kPa that can help interpret an ultrasound finding, because malignant lesions tend to be stiffer than benign ones. Radiology practice uses SWE as an adjunct to greyscale and Doppler ultrasound, not as a replacement for BI-RADS assessment, biopsy, mammography or MRI.

On our pathway, breast SWE is only used where the reporting clinician judges it will add useful information to the conventional ultrasound; where it does not, we say so and do not charge you for a measurement that would not change your report. The service does not replace the assessment you would receive at a one-stop breast clinic where biopsy is clinically appropriate.

No. London Private Ultrasound does not currently offer prostate shear wave elastography. The clinical evidence for prostate SWE and the transrectal pathway it usually requires sit inside specialist urology practice rather than a general elastography clinic, and we would rather refer that assessment out than overpromise on it here.

If you are looking for a prostate assessment, our private urology clinic and prostate MRI referral pathway are the sensible starting points instead.

Not as a standalone bookable pathway. Musculoskeletal SWE (for skeletal muscle, tendons and other soft tissues) is an active research area, and the kPa cut-offs and reproducibility for MSK SWE are still being defined in the literature.

For clinical MSK ultrasound (shoulder, knee, hip, hand and wrist, foot and ankle, sport injuries) we use conventional greyscale and Doppler ultrasound through our musculoskeletal clinic. If a specific research or specialist-referred MSK SWE question is being asked, please call the clinic first so we can check what is technically possible before you book.

SWE reports a stiffness value in kPa, which is one input into the clinical picture. Readings can be affected by patient factors (a fatty liver’s steatosis level, food or alcohol in the last few hours, muscle tension, obesity, ascites, heart failure or inflammation), by measurement technique, by the machine used and by the reference values applied.

Manufacturer-to-manufacturer cut-offs are not always interchangeable, and a single unusually high or low reading in a noisy dataset should not drive a decision on its own. Those are the advantages and disadvantages of shear wave elastography in practice: quantitative and reproducible when done well, but sensitive to context. SWE also does not replace biopsy, mammography, MRI, CT, blood tests or specialist review where those are clinically indicated. Your report explains where SWE added information and, where it did not, says so plainly.

Shear wave elastography uses the same diagnostic ultrasound technology as a standard ultrasound scan. There is no ionising radiation, no contrast injection, no biopsy and no needle involved.

If you are pregnant, tell the clinic and the scanning clinician at booking. SWE is not routinely used during pregnancy, and the clinical team will confirm whether the requested scan is appropriate for your situation before it goes ahead. In general, SWE is well tolerated and the appointment feels no different from a normal ultrasound.

Most bundled ultrasound + shear wave elastography appointments take 20 to 30 minutes, depending on the organ and the complexity of the findings. You will get a verbal explanation in the scan room, and a written report is usually sent within 24 hours.

The report includes the conventional ultrasound findings, the kPa measurements where they were obtained, any technical limitations relevant to those numbers, and recommendations for onward care. Same-day and next-day appointments are usually available at 27 Welbeck Street, 9am to 7pm, seven days a week.