Is There a Point to Performing a Penile Duplex Ultrasound?

A novel strategy to induce penile erection during penile doppler ultrasound: oral sildenafil administration plus alprostadil injection

OBJECTIVES

To evaluate the efficacy of a novel approach to achieve the optimal penile erection during the penile doppler ultrasound (PDU) examination, which was oral sildenafil combined alprostadil injection.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

A total of 60 ED patients were enrolled in our prospective study, and they were randomly assigned to two group with different PDU order. The approaches assisted the PDU included two models, mode A meaning injection of 15 μg alprostadil and model B meaning oral sildenafil 100 mg plus injection of 15 μg alprostadil. The PDU parameters were measured continuously before induced erection, and 5, 10, 15, 20, 25 min.

RESULTS

Each group included 30 ED patients with similar clinical characteristics. After pooling the results together, the PSV, EDV, and RI were all improved significantly, when adding the oral sildenafil administration to assist PDU. Also, the clinical response of oral sildenafil administration plus alprostadil injection was better than that in alprostadil injection alone (p = 0.016). The arterial ED were decreased from 31.67% to 15.00% with the P value 0.031, and the mixed ED was also decreased statistically (23.33% vs 8.33%, p = 0.024).

CONCLUSION

Oral sildenafil administration plus alprostadil injection could improve the diagnostic accuracy of PDU.

DISCREPANCY BETWEEN PATIENT VERSUS PROVIDER ASSESSMENT OF ERECTION QUALITY

OBJECTIVE

To characterize the discrepancy between patients' and providers' assessments of erection rigidity and its association with patient characteristics and penile ultrasound parameters.

METHODS

Patients presenting for penile doppler ultrasound between July 2022 and October 2023 were reviewed retrospectively. After intracavernosal injection, patients and providers independently rated erection rigidity from 1 to 10 prior to ultrasound. We defined discrepancy as a difference of 2 out of 10 or greater between the two assessments. Chi-squared and Mann Whitney U tests were used for hypothesis testing.

RESULTS

65/297 (22%) of patients demonstrated a discrepancy in perceived erection quality. 58/65 (89%) of these patients rated their erections lower than their providers. There was a higher incidence of ED as the primary diagnosis in the discrepant group as compared to the concordant group (p=0.01). The discrepant group also showed a higher resistive index on penile ultrasound (p=0.04), with no difference in peak systolic velocity, end diastolic velocity, or other clinical variables between the two groups.

CONCLUSION

Discrepancy in perceived erection rigidity was mainly driven by lower patient perception, although these patients had noninferior penile hemodynamics to their peers. These findings underscore the influence of subjective perception of virility on sexual function. It is critical for clinicians to identify patients with poor perception of erectile function out of proportion to physiologic abnormalities. Thoughtful counseling about treatment goals and expectations, emphasizing functional outcomes, and adjunctive treatments such as sex therapy or psychotherapy are critical to therapeutic success in this population.

Current and Future Directions of Technology in Assessment of Peyronie's Disease

PURPOSE OF REVIEW

This review assesses the effectiveness of various imaging modalities for diagnosing and managing Peyronie's disease (PD), exploring their clinical utility and limitations.

RECENT FINDINGS

Ultrasonography, currently the only modality endorsed by the American Urological Association, effectively detects calcifications and assesses vascular status but struggles with identifying non-palpable plaques. Computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging provide detailed anatomical views but are costly along with other deterring factors. Autophotography and 3-dimensional imaging offer convenient home assessments but with variable accuracy. Elastography improves upon traditional ultrasonography, while emerging AI technologies show promise for automating precise curvature assessments, pending further validation. A combined approach tailored to each individual patient based on their needs enhances diagnostic accuracy. Supplementing ultrasonography with elastography and potentially AI could improve diagnostic outcomes and better guide treatment decisions. Continued research is vital to integrate these advancements into standard clinical practice and develop updated standardized protocols.

Erection hardness score or penile Doppler ultrasound: which is a better predictor of failure of nonsurgical treatment of erectile dysfunction?

Background

In the evaluation of men presenting for erectile dysfunction (ED), specific diagnostic tests, such as an intracavernous injection test (IIT) with Erection Hardness Score (EHS) assessment or penile Doppler ultrasound (PDU), may be necessary.

Aim

The study sought to compare the prognostic value of PDU parameters with erection rigidity with EHS during IIT in predicting refractory ED after 5 years.

Methods

Patients referred for ED were evaluated and had a PDU with at least 15 μg of intracavernous alprostadil and without any sexual stimulation. At 5 years of follow-up, current and past ED treatments were noted. Refractory ED was defined as having a penile prosthesis (PP) implanted, having failed nonsurgical treatments but having refused PP implantation, or having discontinuation of nonsurgical treatments due to loss of efficacy. Patients with hypogonadism and pelvic surgery were excluded. Receiver-operating characteristic curves were drawn and the area under the curve (AUC) was calculated.

Outcomes

The outcome was the AUC for predicting refractory ED.

Results

At 5 years, 69 men were still in follow-up with a mean age of 58.47 ± 10.39 years, and 13 (18.8%) were classified as having refractory ED. The AUC for the EHS, peak systolic velocity, end-diastolic flow, and resistive index to discriminate refractory ED were 0.820, 0.613, 0.730, and 0.714, respectively.

Clinical Implications

EHS can be a good predictor of response to nonsurgical treatments in ED.

Strengths and Limitations

This was a prospective study to compare IIT with PDU, and validated disease-specific questionnaires were used to assess both clinical efficacy and satisfaction. PDU was performed by a blinded third party. However, resulting from a single-center study, our sample size can be considered small, and the number of events observed was also low.

Conclusion

Our data suggest that an abnormal EHS during an IIT is, at least, noninferior than an abnormal PDU in predicting those patients that will not respond to nonsurgical treatments and that will need a PP in long-term.

Analysis of the relationship between sexual satisfaction, erectile dysfunction, and penile vascular parameters in a cohort of patients

Background

Erectile dysfunction (ED) is the second sexual dysfunction affecting men. Penile duplex ultrasound (PDU) with intracavernous injection of a vasoactive agent as alprostadil or papaverine, may play an important role in differentiating psychogenic from vasculogenic ED (arterial or venooclusive) and may also have an important role in the secondary prevention of cardiovascular events. The aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between the vascular parameters and sexual satisfaction as established by a questionnaire.

Methods

Prospective, multicenter analysis of all patients who underwent a PDU between September 2018 and April 2021 in four centers, including patients who were >18 years old and underwent a PDU for ED, Peyronie's disease (PD) or other reasons, signed informed consent and completed an adapted version of the Brief Sexual Symptom Checklist (BSSC). All the patients underwent a standard technique, and from a total of 325 patients, 16 were excluded because of low testosterone levels, and 15 due to missing data.

Results

A total of 294 patients were included for the analysis. Significant differences were found between patients with and without ED defined by their score in the Sexual Health Inventory for Men (SHIM) questionnaire in the PSV at 10', adjusted for age (38.07 vs. 44.95 cm/s; P=0.016), and in the PSV and the EHS at 10' for sexually satisfied and non-satisfied patients, and a significant correlation with those parameters and the probability of being sexually satisfied (r=0.147, P=0.011; r=0.132, P=0.023; respectively).

Conclusions

In our clinical practice we used the cut-off of >35 cm/s, that seems to be quite low looking at our results. The 10' measurement may be more sensitive in order to establish a diagnosis. BSSC questionnaire is a simple, easy-to perform tool to screen those patients at risk of developing sexual dysfunctions.

Cavernous artery intima-media thickness predicts the response to sildenafil in erectile dysfunction patients as a morphological parameter

While the intima-media thickness (IMT) of the cavernous artery was used for diagnosis for vascular erectile dysfunction (ED) with more accuracy than the peak systolic velocity, the role of the IMT in predicting treatment responses remained unexamined. A total of 136 patients with ED were enrolled. The baseline clinical and laboratory characteristics were collected. Penile Doppler ultrasonography (PDU) was performed on all patients by a blinded sonographer. Sildenafil was administrated to all patients with an adjusted dose of 50 or 100 mg on demand over a period of 3 months. A follow-up was conducted on all patients using the Erectile Hardness Score (EHS) questionnaire along with the visual and tactile version of the standardised EHS tool. The peak systolic velocity (PSV) and IMT were compared between sildenafil responders and sildenafil nonresponders, while receiver operator characteristic (ROC) curves were used to calculate the cut-off values and compare the test power respectively. There was no statistical difference from the baseline characteristics. The IMT of cavernous artery was more accurate than PSV to predict the sildenafil response (AUC = 0.809, 0.626 respectively). IMT could predict sildenafil responders more accurately than PSV, and the cut-off value of the IMT of the cavernous artery was less than 0.22 mm.