Varicoceles: combined sonography and thermography in diagnosis and posttherapeutic evaluation

One hundred eighteen patients with clinically suspected varicocele were examined with thermography and sonography before phlebography of the internal spermatic vein (ISV). The combination of sonography and thermography led to an exact differentiation among eight patients with normal findings (6.8%), 103 with left-sided varicoceles (87.3%), six with bilateral varicoceles (5.1%), and one with a right-sided varicocele (0.85%). The accuracy of thermography was 98.4% and of sonography, 92.7%. With sonography, venous dilatation was detected when the patients were upright and the Valsalva maneuver was being performed. Thermography was more sensitive than sonography in detecting persistent varicocele in 63 patients reexamined after sclerotherapy. Sclerotherapy within the inguinal segment of the ISV gave better results (82.9%) than that within the proximal segment (77.3%).