Publication:

Role of testicular elastography in the evaluation of male infertility: a comparative cross-sectional study

Background An estimated 70 million people worldwide are thought to be affected by some severity of infertility. Ultrasound, MRI, and invasive procedures like venography and vasography are the usual investigations taken for the evaluation of infertility. Ultrasound is the preferred initial modality due to its availability and non-invasive nature. In our study, we evaluated the usefulness of advanced ultrasound techniques like Doppler and Elastography and compared the results with biochemical parameters of semen analysis.

Methods A comparative cross-sectional study was conducted over a period of one year, on men between the ages of 22 and 45, with normal or abnormal sperm analysis reports, who presented with inability to conceive. The testicular parenchyma resistive index, shear value and shear ratio were recorded. The mean values of the data and their standard deviations were assessed and compared by Student’s t-test. The correlation of semen parameters with RI and shear wave indices was tested by One way ANOVA test, with a p value<0.05 considered statistically significant.

Results Our study found that strain value and strain ratio were significantly elevated in the non-fertile group compared to the fertile group. The resistive index of the intraparenchymal arteries did not show any difference between infertile and fertile men.

Conclusions Hence, we concluded that strain value and strain ratio are important investigative tools in the evaluation of male infertility. However, since our study was conducted on a small sample, larger large-scale studies are useful in establishing a concrete conclusion.