A comparison of ultrasound-based testis volume with Prader orchidometry and stability of testis size relative to peers from birth to 28 weeks

Abstract

Background: Testis volume, an indicator of the reproductive development during minipuberty, is commonly measured by Prader orchidometer, despite ultrasound being the gold standard. Data are lacking on the longitudinal relationship between these two measures and on the stability of boys' relative testis size across infancy.

Objectives: To examine the relationship between ultrasound-based and orchidometer-based testis volume measurements and to assess the stability of relative testis size among individual boys in the study.

Materials and methods: The Infant Feeding and Early Development study is a longitudinal cohort of healthy infants recruited from hospitals in the Philadelphia area during 2010-2013. We measured testis size from birth to 28 weeks in 147 infants using Prader orchidometry (nine study visits) and ultrasound (five study visits). We modeled testis growth, extracted predicted volumes for each boy on each day of the study, and ranked these volumes from smallest to largest.

Results: The average testis volume trajectory exhibited linear growth over the first 16 weeks followed by slower growth and then a plateau. Prader orchidometry overestimated testis size by almost 3-fold, compared to ultrasound. A range of ultrasound volumes corresponded to each bead size (e.g., bead size of 1 cm³ corresponded to an ultrasound-based volume between 0.11 and 0.87 cm³). Infants changed rankings of median of 22 positions (of 147) across the entire 6-month follow-up. Infants' ranks near birth were highly correlated with their ranks at the end of the study.

Discussion: Consistent with other studies, we found wide variability in testis size during infancy and that Prader orchidometry overestimates testis size. When compared to ultrasound, orchidometry only crudely estimates testis size in this age group. Ultrasound-based volumes generally showed stability in relative testis size across infancy.

Conclusion: Accurate measurement of testis size is difficult using orchidometry in infants. This highlights the need for ultrasound for accurate measurement, with a one-time measurement likely sufficient to determine relative testis size across the first 6 months of infancy.

Keywords: infant boys; minipuberty; reproductive development; testis growth.