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Review
. 2022 Jul 16;12(7):1727.
doi: 10.3390/diagnostics12071727.

Elastography in the Urological Practice: Urinary and Male Genital Tract, Prostate Excluded-Review

Vasile Simon  1   2 , Sorin Marian Dudea  3 , Nicolae Crisan  1   2 , Vasile Dan Stanca  1   2 , Marina Dudea-Simon  4 , Iulia Andras  1   2 , Zoltan Attila Mihaly  2 , Ioan Coman  1
Affiliations
Review

Elastography in the Urological Practice: Urinary and Male Genital Tract, Prostate Excluded-Review

Vasile Simon et al. Diagnostics (Basel). .

Abstract

The aim of this article is to review the utility of elastography in the day-to-day clinical practice of the urologist. An electronic database search was performed on PubMed and Cochrane Library with a date range between January 2000 and December 2021. The search yielded 94 articles that passed the inclusion and exclusion criteria. The articles were reviewed and discussed by organ, pathology and according to the physical principle underlying the elastographic method. Elastography was used in the study of normal organs, tumoral masses, chronic upper and lower urinary tract obstructive diseases, dysfunctions of the lower urinary tract and the male reproductive system, and as a pre- and post-treatment monitoring tool. Elastography has numerous applications in urology, but due to a lack of standardization in the methodology and equipment, further studies are required.

Keywords: elastography; penile; renal; testicular; urethral; urethral sphincter; urinary bladder.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
STARD diagram of the inclusion and exclusion criteria.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Renal pathologies assessed by elastography.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Testicular pathologies assessed by elastography.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Illustration of a two-dimensional shear wave elastography (2D SWE) performed in a patient with a segmental testicular infarction using the SuperSonic Imagine Aixplorer Ultrasound device. A color scale map is displayed in the upper part of the image, low stiffness is color-coded with blue, while red signifies high stiffness. Numeric 2D SWE results (expressed in kPa) are displayed on the right side of the image. The Q-Box displays the mean, median, minimum, maximum and standard deviation (SD) of the measurements, along with the depth, the diameter of the region of interest (ROI) and the stability index (SI).
Figure 5
Figure 5
Illustration of a two-dimensional shear wave elastography (2D SWE) performed in a patient with a large testicular tumor using the SuperSonic Imagine Aixplorer Ultrasound device. A color scale map is displayed in the upper part of the image, low stiffness is color-coded with blue, while red signifies high stiffness. Numeric 2D SWE results (expressed in kPa) are displayed on the right side of the image. The Q-Box displays the mean, median, minimum, maximum and standard deviation (SD) of the measurements, along with the depth, the diameter of the region of interest (ROI), and the stability index (SI).
Figure 6
Figure 6
Penile pathologies evaluated by elastography.
Figure 7
Figure 7
Pathologies of the urethra and urethral sphincter evaluated by elastography.
Figure 8
Figure 8
Urinary bladder pathologies assessed by elastography.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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