Department of Radiology and Urology1, Chung Ang Gil Hospital
ABSTRACT
Color doppler ultrasound is ideally suited for diagnosing acute scrotal disease as it provides simultaneousdisplay of tissue morphology and blood flow. This study was performed in order to evaluate the utility ofresistive index(RI) of intratesticular arteries in orchitis. We retrospectively analyzed 18 testes of 15 patientsconfirmed by means of appropriate response to antibiotic treatment and 20 testes of 10 asymptomatic volunteers.The resistive indexes ranged from 0.25 to 0.60 (mean, 0.48) in orchitis, and from 0.50 to 0.71 (mean, 0.62) involunteers. Thus, the resistive index in orchitis is significantly lower than that of the volunteers (p<0.05).With a cut-off point of resistive index at 0.6, the sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negativepredictive value, and accuracy were 94%, 90%, 89%, 95% and 92%m respectively. We conclude that decreased resistiveindex is a helpful finding in the diagnosis of orchitis, and we suggest the resistive index of 0.6 as a cut-offpoint.