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

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

MATERIALS AND METHODS: 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.

RESULTS: 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.

CONCLUSIONS: 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.