Findings of fat-suppressed T2-weighted and diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging in the diagnosis of non-palpable testes.
OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) findings, diagnostic accuracy and clinical usefulness of fat-suppressed T2-weighted and diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) in the management of non-palpable testes.


METHODS
In all, 56 children (63 non-palpable testes) aged 8 months-11 years (mean 24.7 months) with non-palpable testes were enrolled. T1- and T2-weighted imaging, as well as fat-suppressed T2-weighted imaging and DWI were performed during MRI examination, and the imaging results were compared with surgical findings.


RESULTS
In the 63 non-palpable testes, MRI identified 22% (14/63) as intra-abdominal, 20% (13/63) as intra-canalicular, 29% (18/63) as testicular nubbins, and 29% (18/63) as unidentifiable. Although it was difficult to confirm their presence in the abdominal cavity using T1- and T2-weighted imaging alone, additional assessment, including fat-suppressed T2-weighted imaging and DWI facilitated the detection of intra-abdominal testes more easily because they were imaged at a markedly higher signal intensity. The sensitivity, specificity and positive and negative predictive values for the MRI vs the operative findings were 100, 97.3, 96.3, and 100%, respectively. The overall prediction accuracy was 98.4%.


CONCLUSIONS
Additional MRI assessments, fat-suppressed T2-weighted imaging and DWI are useful examinations to improve the preoperative diagnostic accuracy of non-palpable testes.
Kato
Toshiki
T
Department of Nephro-urology and Radiology, Nagoya City University Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Nagoya, Japan.
Kojima
Yoshiyuki
Y
Kamisawa
Hideyuki
H
Takeuchi
Mitsuru
M
Mizuno
Kentaro
K
Sasaki
Shigeru
S
Kohri
Kenjiro
K
Hayashi
Yutaro
Y
D000273:Adipose Tissue; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003456:Cryptorchidism / Q000175:diagnosis*; D004812:Epidemiologic Methods; D006801:Humans; D007090:Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D007223:Infant; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male