Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2021 Dec;15(4):214-218.
doi: 10.1097/CU9.0000000000000031. Epub 2021 Jun 23.

Scrotal base distance: A new key genital measurement in males with hypospadias and cryptorchidism

Tariq O Abbas  1   2   3   4 , Mansour Ali  1   2
Affiliations

Scrotal base distance: A new key genital measurement in males with hypospadias and cryptorchidism

Tariq O Abbas et al. Curr Urol. 2021 Dec.

Abstract

Background: Anogenital distance (AGD) in both humans and animals is a known reflection of fetal endocrine effect on genital virilization and the related abnormalities, including cryptorchidism and hypospadias. However, we introduce here and investigate scrotal base distance (SBD) as a sensitive genital anthropometric biomarker in human infants with cryptorchidism and hypospadias, which are considered early manifestations of testicular dysgenesis syndrome. We aim to assess SBD in patients with cryptorchidism or hypospadias against healthy subjects.

Material and methods: Patients with hypospadias (n = 61, age 17.4 ± 6.3 months) or cryptorchidism (n = 51, age 11.4 ± 4.8 months) were enrolled for assessment of SBD, AGD, and penile length; and compared with a cohort of 102 full-term healthy boys for standard ritual circumcision by measuring age-specific standard deviation scores.

Results: Patients having hypospadias had lower mean SBD, AGD, and penile length standard deviation scores than the control group (p < 0.01). These values in patients with cryptorchidism were longer than mean values in boys with hypospadias (p < 0.01) and shorter than mean values in the control group.

Conclusions: We showed that SBD, AGD, and penile length were lower in patients with cryptorchidism or hypospadias compared to normative data measured from a control group of healthy boys for ritual circumcision. These results enforce the use of SBD as an objective anthropometric measurement and a viable biomarker to assess the effects of fetal endocrine imbalance on male external genitalia development.

Keywords: Cryptorchidism; Hypospadias; Scrotal base distance; Testicular dysgenesis syndrome.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest regarding the publication of this paper.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Illustration showing the landmark points for the measurements of anogenital distance (AGD) and scrotal base distance (SBD).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Photographs are showing (A) how to measure the anterior extent of the SBD in a patient with moderate penoscrotal transposition and (B) the measurement of the posterior limit of the SBD where the end of the scrotal rugae ends “continuous line” but not the skin indentation and slight hyperpigmentation “dotted line.” SBD = scrotal base distance.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Different (A) AGD and (B) SBD measurements in the 3 groups. AGD = anogenital distance; SBD = scrotal base distance; UDT = undescended testes.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Correlation between SBD and AGD over the study group. AGD = anogenital distance; SBD = scrotal base distance.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Limitation of AGD measurement. The practically measured AGD is longer than the realistic AGD according to the thickness of the perineal fat of every patient. The SBD has the potential to be less discrepant in patients and easier to measure than AGD. AGD = anogenital distance; SBD = scrotal base distance.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Acerini CL, Hughes IA. Endocrine disrupting chemicals: A new and emerging public health problem? Arch Dis Child 2006;91 (8):633–641. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Badylak SF, Lantz GC, Coffey A, Geddes LA. Small intestinal submucosa as a large diameter vascular graft in the dog. J Surg Res 1989;47 (1):74–80. - PubMed
    1. Skakkebaek NE, Rajpert-De Meyts E, Main KM. Testicular dysgenesis syndrome: An increasingly common developmental disorder with environmental aspects. Hum Reprod 2001;16 (5):972–978. - PubMed
    1. Dean A, Smith LB, Macpherson S, Sharpe RM. The effect of dihydrotestosterone exposure during or prior to the masculinization programming window on reproductive development in male and female rats. Int J Androl 2012;35 (3):330–339. - PubMed
    1. van den Driesche S, Kolovos P, Platts S, Drake AJ, Sharpe RM. Inter-relationship between testicular dysgenesis and Leydig cell function in the masculinization programming window in the rat. PLoS One 2012;7 (1):e30111. - PMC - PubMed