We prospectively evaluated the performance of combined shear wave elastography (SWE) and conventional ultrasound (US) for the characterization of 89 testicular focal masses. Testes were evaluated with B-mode, color Doppler and SWE measurements, locating a region of interest on the normal and pathologic parenchyma. Thirty-seven malignant tumors (MTs), 12 burned out tumors (BOTs), 28 Leydig cell tumors (LCTs), 2 dermoid cysts and other benign lesions were included. MTs + BOTs exhibited more microliths and macrocalcifications compared with benign lesions (p < 10-4). LCTs manifested mostly a dominant peripheral vascularization pattern compared with other lesions. MTs + BOTs were stiffer compared with benign lesions (p < 2 × 10-4) but with a moderate area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC) of 80%. By focusing on LCTs versus MTs + BOTs, diagnostic performance led to an AUROC of 89% for the best stiffness parameter. For combined conventional US and SWE, the diagnostic performance to differentiate all benign lesions versus MTs + BOTs and LCTs versus MTs + BOTs increased to AUROCs of 93% and 98%, respectively.
Keywords: Burned out germ cell tumor; Color Doppler ultrasound; Leydig cell tumor; Shear wave elastography; Testicular tumor.
Copyright © 2018 World Federation for Ultrasound in Medicine & Biology. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.