Diagnostics (Jul 2022)

Elastography in the Urological Practice: Urinary and Male Genital Tract, Prostate Excluded—Review

  • Vasile Simon,
  • Sorin Marian Dudea,
  • Nicolae Crisan,
  • Vasile Dan Stanca,
  • Marina Dudea-Simon,
  • Iulia Andras,
  • Zoltan Attila Mihaly,
  • Ioan Coman

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/diagnostics12071727
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 12, no. 7
p. 1727

Abstract

Read online

The aim of this article is to review the utility of elastography in the day-to-day clinical practice of the urologist. An electronic database search was performed on PubMed and Cochrane Library with a date range between January 2000 and December 2021. The search yielded 94 articles that passed the inclusion and exclusion criteria. The articles were reviewed and discussed by organ, pathology and according to the physical principle underlying the elastographic method. Elastography was used in the study of normal organs, tumoral masses, chronic upper and lower urinary tract obstructive diseases, dysfunctions of the lower urinary tract and the male reproductive system, and as a pre- and post-treatment monitoring tool. Elastography has numerous applications in urology, but due to a lack of standardization in the methodology and equipment, further studies are required.

Keywords