Yüzkan Sabahattin, Çilengir Atilla Hikmet
Department of Radiology, University of Health Sciences, Basaksehir Cam and Sakura City Hospital, Istanbul, Turkey.
J Med Ultrasound. 2022 May 3;30(4):277-281. doi: 10.4103/jmu.jmu_218_21. eCollection 2022 Oct-Dec.
The purpose of this study was to use ultrasonography and shear wave elastography (SWE) to assess stiffness and volume of testes in adult patients with varicocele, to compare the results with those of normal contralateral testes of the same patients and healthy testes of control subjects.
In this IRB-approved prospective comparative study, 58 patients with varicocele (116 testes) and 58 control patients (116 testes) were enrolled. A total of 66 testes with varicocele were added to group A, their 50 healthful contralateral testes were added to Group B, and 116 healthy control testes were added to Group C. Analysis of variance (one way ANOVA) test was used to compare groups and Student's -test was used for their binary comparisons. The correlation between the testicular stiffness and volume was studied using Pearson's correlation test.
There was not a significant difference in the mean SWE values between three groups and also, between two-group comparisons ( < 0.05). In the mean testicular volumes, a significant difference was observed between Groups A and C ( = 0.028). Conversely, there was not a significant difference between Groups A and B ( = 0.907) or Groups B and C ( = 0.094). A meaningful correlation between testicular stiffness and volume was not detected for each group.
A significant correlation was not determined between SWE values and varicocele, and also between SWE values and testicular volume. We advise that more studies with larger populations of patients are required to verify the effectiveness of SWE in predicting testicular parenchymal damage.
本研究的目的是使用超声检查和剪切波弹性成像（SWE）评估成年精索静脉曲张患者睾丸的硬度和体积，并将结果与同一患者的正常对侧睾丸以及对照组健康睾丸的结果进行比较。
在这项经机构审查委员会批准的前瞻性比较研究中，纳入了58例精索静脉曲张患者（116个睾丸）和58例对照患者（116个睾丸）。将总共66个患有精索静脉曲张的睾丸添加到A组，将其50个健康的对侧睾丸添加到B组，并将116个健康对照睾丸添加到C组。使用方差分析（单因素方差分析）检验比较组间差异，并使用Student's -检验进行二元比较。使用Pearson相关检验研究睾丸硬度与体积之间的相关性。
三组之间以及两组比较之间的平均SWE值均无显著差异（<0.05）。在平均睾丸体积方面，A组和C组之间观察到显著差异（=0.028）。相反，A组和B组之间（=0.907）或B组和C组之间（=0.094）没有显著差异。未检测到每组睾丸硬度与体积之间有意义的相关性。
未确定SWE值与精索静脉曲张之间以及SWE值与睾丸体积之间存在显著相关性。我们建议需要更多对更大患者群体的研究来验证SWE在预测睾丸实质损伤方面的有效性。
