Realtime-elastosonography of the penis in patients with Peyronie's disease

To evaluate the performance of real time elastosonography (RTE) in the identification of different types of penile lesions in patients with Peyronie's disease.

Seventy four consecutive patients with complaints of Peyronie's disease underwent B-Mode ultrasonography (US) and RTE of the penis in the same sitting. In each patient all sequences of elastosonography and B-Mode US were recorded and compared to evaluate the diagnostic performance of the new imaging technique.

B-Mode US detected penile plaques in 64 patients (86.41%) and elastosonography confirmed these data. In the remaining 10 patients elastosonography documented, in five of them, areas of reducing elasticity suggesting the presence of initialfibrosis. Cohen's K was used to evaluate the discordances between B-Mode US and Elastosonography scan. A p value < 0.05 (two tailed) was considered statistically significant. The penile curvature (K = 0.353; p = 0.125) and the painful erection (K = 0.500; p = 0.248) evaluations were discordant: the B-mode US underestimated the positive cases. Instead the penile plaque and curvature > 30 degrees, and the penile plaque evaluations were completely concordant.

RTE is a simple, non invasive, rapid complementary imaging technique that may improve the accuracy of B-Mode US in detecting penile lesions in patients with Peyronie's disease.