Our aim in the study described here was to prospectively establish the feasibility of using and reproducibility of testicular shear-wave elastography in the assessment of testicular stiffness in 62 normal patients and 539 infertile men with obstructive azoospermia (OA), non-Klinefelter syndrome non-obstructive azoospermia (non-KS NOA), Klinefelter syndrome NOA (KS NOA), oligoasthenoteratozoospermia (OAT) or a left varicocele. The feasibility rate was 96.9%, with an intra-class correlation coefficient of 0.85 (95% confidence interval: 0.83-0.88). Median stiffness (interquartile range) values were 2.4 kPa (2.0, 2.9), 2.1 kPa (1.8, 2.5), 2.4 kPa (2.0, 2.7), 2.0 kPa (1.7, 2.4), 2.6 kPa (2, 3.2) and 2.2 kPa (1.8, 2.6) for men with a normal testis (n = 108), OAT (n = 689), OA (n = 119), non-KS NOA (n = 183), KS NOA (n = 70) and varicocele (n = 132), respectively. Testicular shear wave elastography is a feasible and reproducible technique. A significant positive association was found between stiffness and testis volume (p = 0.001). Testicular stiffness was higher in OA than in non-KS NOA populations (p = 1.e-10) and in KS NOA than in NOA populations (p = 2.0e-8), but the substantial number of overlapping values limited the clinical impact.
Ultrasound in medicine & biology. 2017 Jan 03 [Epub ahead of print]
Laurence Rocher, Aline Criton, Jean-Luc Gennisson, Vincent Izard, Sophie Ferlicot, Mickael Tanter, Gerard Benoit, Marie France Bellin, Jean-Michel Correas
Department of Adult Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology, Bicetre University Hospital, Le Kremlin Bicêtre, France; Paris South Medical University, Le Kremlin Bicêtre, France; Institut Langevin, ESPCI Paris, PSL Research University CNRS UMR 7587, INSERM ERL U-979, Paris, France. Electronic address: ., Supersonic Imagine, Aix en Provence cedex, France., Institut Langevin, ESPCI Paris, PSL Research University CNRS UMR 7587, INSERM ERL U-979, Paris, France., Department of Urology, Bicêtre University Hospital, Le Kremlin Bicêtre, France., Paris South Medical University, Le Kremlin Bicêtre, France; Department of Pathology, Bicêtre University Hospital, Le Kremlin Bicêtre, France., Paris South Medical University, Le Kremlin Bicêtre, France., Department of Adult Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology, Bicetre University Hospital, Le Kremlin Bicêtre, France; Paris South Medical University, Le Kremlin Bicêtre, France., Institut Langevin, ESPCI Paris, PSL Research University CNRS UMR 7587, INSERM ERL U-979, Paris, France; Department of Adult Radiology, Necker University Hospital, Paris, France; Paris Descartes University, Paris, France.