[Calcifications of the prostate: a transrectal echographic study]

Prostatic lithiasis is a well know phenomenon. It has little clinical significance and is not easily shown by conventional radiography, which has poor sensitivity and specificity. The authors have studied 612 patients with both suprapubic and transrectal US in order to 1) assess US sensitivity and specificity and 2) report the frequency, spatial distribution, number and features of prostatic calcifications with special emphasis on differential diagnosis between prostatic neoplasms and chronic prostatitis. The authors have also studied the relationship between morphology and symptoms and the results agree with those reported in the scanty literature. The authors conclude that the parameters studied are directly related to age, except for a younger group with clear evidence of genital inflammation. The authors emphasize the impossibility to correlate morphology of prostatic calcifications with pathologic conditions: there are no specific symptoms clearly connected with calcification even though the inflammation is often associated with calcifications.