Color-doppler potentiality during prostatic transrectal ultrasonography

Abstract

— This communication has the purpose of presenting an evaluation of Color-Doppler (C.D.) potentiality during prostatic transrectal ultrasonography. From September 1991 to April 1995, 3200 prostatic transrectal ultrasonographies were perfomed by means of C.D. on 1250 patients with a PSA value higher than 5 ng/ml; among these 1250 patients, 210 were subjected to a biopsy and 126 were positive for adenocarcinoma. By using C.D. it has been possible to display the main vascular pedicles of the prostatic gland in standard conditions and to identify patterns indicating diseases, both benign (BPH and prostatitis) and malignant (cancer and follow-up of patients subjected to therapy). In 113 out of 126 histologically identified cancers, C.D. gives patterns of hypervascular areas even in the absence of specific focal lesions. On the basis of these results it is possible to state that C.D. evaluation during prostatic transrectal ultrasonography can aid prostatic cancer diagnosis, supplying a further selection parameter for patients who must undergo a needle biopsy while requiring only a slightly longer time (2–3 minutes) for the examination.