Hamm B, Fobbe F
Department of Radiology, Charité, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Germany.
Ultrasound Med Biol. 1995;21(2):143-7. doi: 10.1016/s0301-5629(94)00088-3.
We performed a prospective study to investigate whether the sonographic appearance of the testicular parenchyma changes during maturation of the testis. One hundred forty-three boys ranging in age from 6 months to 16 years, and 11 volunteers aged about 30 years, were included in the study. The echogenicity of each of the 308 normal testes were determined by measuring the average brightness of a histogram over a defined testicular area. To avoid divergent results due to different settings of the device in individual cases, the average brightness of a histogram of a standard ultrasound phantom was measured immediately after the examination of each testicle. From these 2 measurements, testicular echogenicity could be calculated independently of individual equipment settings. All testes had a homogeneous echotexture. The echogenicity of the prepubertal testis was markedly reduced compared to the medium-level echogenicity of the mature testis (p < 0.001). Testicular echogenicity increases during puberty. We conclude that testicular echogenicity increases with maturation. Knowledge of this fact may improve the diagnostic performance of scrotal ultrasound especially in children.
我们进行了一项前瞻性研究，以调查睾丸实质的超声表现是否会在睾丸成熟过程中发生变化。该研究纳入了143名年龄在6个月至16岁之间的男孩以及11名年龄约30岁的志愿者。通过测量在定义的睾丸区域上直方图的平均亮度来确定308个正常睾丸中每个睾丸的回声性。为避免因个别病例中设备设置不同而导致结果出现差异，在检查每个睾丸后立即测量标准超声体模直方图的平均亮度。通过这两次测量，可以独立于个别设备设置来计算睾丸回声性。所有睾丸均具有均匀的回声纹理。与成熟睾丸的中等水平回声性相比，青春期前睾丸的回声性明显降低（p < 0.001）。睾丸回声性在青春期会增加。我们得出结论，睾丸回声性随着成熟而增加。了解这一事实可能会提高阴囊超声的诊断性能，尤其是在儿童中。
