[Tuberculous inflammation of the testicle: characteristic echographic picture]

During the last 3 years (1987/1990) the authors have performed 562 ultrasound studies of the scrotum in patients ranging 6 months to 76 years of age. All patients were referred with a non-specific clinical suspicion of scrotal pathologies. Only 214/562 patients presenting with signs and symptoms of scrotal inflammation were considered for this study. Among this group of 214 patients, 34 cases of tuberculous epididymo-orchitis were identified. The remaining 180 patients were classified as follows: non-specific inflammation 141, other non inflammatory pathology 39. In the group with findings of tuberculosis, all stages of disease were identified, including miliary forms as well as nodular forms. The patients were closely followed during medical therapy or until surgery was performed to study the course of the disease. For each form of disease specific US findings and differential diagnostic criteria were recognized and will be illustrated in this paper. All diagnosis of tuberculosis were confirmed either at surgery or on the basis of successful response to specific chemotherapy. US diagnosis based on the morphologic and echo texture criteria allowed high diagnostic accuracy: in fact in the whole group of 214 patients with inflammatory disease there were only 1 false positive and 1 false negative diagnoses with a sensitivity of 96.9%, a specificity of 89.9% and a diagnostic accuracy of 98.85%. The paper also stresses the importance of US in the short- and long-term follow-up of the patients undergoing medical therapy.