APPLICATION OF SCROTAL ULTRASOUND IMAGING IN CLINICOPATHOLOGICALLY SUSPECTED CASES OF MALE INFERTILITY- A PROSPECTIVE STUDY IN A PERIPHERAL MEDICAL COLLEGE IN WEST BENGAL

Scrotal USG in Male infertility

Abstract

Introduction: Male infertility is becoming a modern plague in couples’ lives. There is a steadily increasing amount of research being done on altered fertility in  men in an attempt to identify a curable reason or rule out more serious diseases.

Aim: to assess the utility of ultrasound in locating potential intra- and extra-testicular causes of male infertility and to establish a correlation between the results of ultrasonography and the results of clinical and laboratory investigations.

Material  and  Methods: This prospective cross-sectional study was done on 100 male patients having suspected infertility referred to radiology department with clinical notes and pathological findings. All the patients underwent only  scrotal ultrasonography with high frequency transducer having a frequency of 7.5 MHz and Colour Doppler wherever indicated.

Results : In  this  study,most commonly detected etiology  by clinical suspicion and ultrasound was varicocele. Ultrasound detected more etiologies compared to physical examination. Most commonly detected pathology both by clinical and scrotal ultrasound evaluation was varicocele. The p-value was 0.0001 showing extreme statistical significance.

Conclusion: Scrotal ultrasonography are important non invasive diagnostic tools that minimizes the need for more invasive studies in the evaluation of male infertility.

Keywords :  Male infertility , Ultrasound , Scrotal , Testicular