Nicolaij D, Steeno O P, Coucke W, Lamberigts G, Van Steen A, Devos P, De Roo M
Eur J Nucl Med. 1983;8(3):123-6. doi: 10.1007/BF00256736.
Varicocele is the most frequent cause of male subfertility. Several invasive and noninvasive techniques can be used to visualize scrotal phlebectasies. In this study sequential scintigraphy after intravenous injection of 99mTc-albumin was compared with tele-thermography. The normal and pathological images are described. The more obvious the clinical condition, the more lesions were revealed by scintigraphy (29.6% in subfertile men suspected of having variococele; 76.9% in patients with first degree varicocele; and 100% in Grades II and III cases). In 55 cases (of a total of 76 cases explored by radioisotopic techniques), the comparison of the thermographic results with the scintigraphy results suggests that scrotal scintigraphy is less sensitive. However, there are more false positive thermographies expressed as a discordance with clinical examination, which indicates higher specificity of scintigraphy. In conclusion scrotal scintigraphy cannot be considered as the screening procedure of first choice for varicocele, but it can give complementary information, especially when thermographic results are at variance with the clinical examination.
精索静脉曲张是男性生育力低下最常见的原因。有几种侵入性和非侵入性技术可用于观察阴囊静脉扩张。在本研究中，将静脉注射99mTc-白蛋白后的序贯闪烁显像与远红外热成像进行了比较。描述了正常和病理图像。临床情况越明显，闪烁显像显示的病变越多（疑似精索静脉曲张的不育男性中为29.6%；一度精索静脉曲张患者中为76.9%；二级和三级病例中为100%）。在55例（总共76例采用放射性同位素技术检查）中，热成像结果与闪烁显像结果的比较表明，阴囊闪烁显像的敏感性较低。然而，热成像有更多假阳性结果，表现为与临床检查不一致，这表明闪烁显像具有更高的特异性。总之，阴囊闪烁显像不能被视为精索静脉曲张的首选筛查方法，但它可以提供补充信息，尤其是当热成像结果与临床检查不一致时。
