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F. Lotti, H. Behre, F. Francavilla, A. Isidori, S. Kliesch, S. La Vignera, M. Punab, O. Rajmil, O. Shaeer, W. Weidner, M. Maggi, HP-04-003 Definition of Ultrasound Reference Values for the Organs of the Male Genital Tract: The European Academy of Andrology Ultrasound Project on Fertile Men, The Journal of Sexual Medicine, Volume 16, Issue Supplement_2, May 2019, Page S36, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsxm.2019.03.132
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Extract
Objective
Colour-Doppler ultrasound (CDUS) imaging of the male genital tract (MGT) is an important diagnostic tool in reproductive and sexual medicine, useful, in the latter, in evaluating some organic causes of specific sexual dysfunctions (e.g. prostate-vesicular inflammation underlying premature ejaculation; testicular abnormalities underlying testosterone deficiency-related erectile dysfunction). However, MGT-CDUS still suffers of lack of standardization and often tends to produce subjective and vague diagnoses. This is the main reason why the European Academy of Andrology (EAA) promoted a multicenter study aimed at investigating the CDUS features of the MGT in healthy, fertile men, to obtain “normative” CDUS parameters for the MGT. The primary aim was to evaluate the CDUS features and reference values of the MGT organs in healthy, fertile men. The secondary aim was to correlate the CDUS findings with clinical, seminal and biochemical parameters evaluated within the same CDUS session.
Methods
Study design and Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) are available at http://www.andrologyacademy.net/studies. The study was designed as a cohort, multicentric, international, observational study. Eleven EAA Centers joined the project. The main inclusion criteria were: men aged ≥ 18 years, without systemic diseases and/or medications affecting fertility, partners of a pregnant woman or who fathered a child during the last year, following natural conception. The study protocol included the following procedures, performed within the same day: 1)personal and medical history; 2)physical examination; 3)blood samples for determination of hormonal and glyco-metabolic parameters, evaluated in a central lab (including gas chromatography/mass spectrometry for steroid hormones); 4)scrotal and transrectal CDUS evaluated before and after ejaculation; 5)semen analysis (according to the WHO, 2010).
