The sonographic twinkling artifact in testicular calcification.

OBJECTIVE

The twinkling artifact is a color Doppler phenomenon that appears as a rapidly fluctuating red and blue Doppler signal behind a strongly reflecting medium, manifesting as a color signal but without real flow behind the structures. To the untrained eye, the twinkling artifact may lead to the misdiagnosis of vascular flow within a structure. Our objective was to show the occurrence of the twinkling artifact in the testis.

METHODS

Two patients with calcification in the testis were examined with standard settings on 2 different sonography machines to show this artifact.

RESULTS

Calcification in the tunica albuginea and intratesticular macrocalcification both showed this artifact.

CONCLUSIONS

We report the presence of the twinkling artifact in 2 cases of testicular calcification, which shows that this phenomenon can occur in the testis.