title: The correlation between preputial blood flow and microvessel density in distal hypospadias: a prospective clinical study.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  A prospective clinical study was designed to investigate the correlation between preputial blood flow (BF) and microvessel density (MVD).
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 44 children were included in the study. The hypospadias group consisted of 16 children undergoing distal hypospadias repair, and the control group consisted of 28 age-matched healthy children undergoing circumcision. BFs were measured using a laser Doppler flowmeter on the most distal part of the dorsal prepuces, and then the tissue samples were harvested from the same location. They were immunostained with an antibody against CD31 in order to assay MVD. The statistical analyses were carried out using Student's t test and Pearson's correlation analysis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The preputial MVD was found to be significantly decreased in the patients with hypospadias compared with the healthy children (33.95 ± 9.79 vs. 48.25 ± 10.08; p < 0.05), whereas there was no difference in terms of the BF (40.58 ± 16.16 vs. 33.09 ± 19.65; p > 0.05).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We found no correlation between the preputial MVD and BF in the present study. This result suggests that reduced preputial MVD does not have any influence on BF in distal hypospadias.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatric Surgery, Süleyman Demirel University Medical School, Isparta 32260, Turkey.
authors.forename: Levent
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Ceyhan
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatric Surgery, Süleyman Demirel University Medical School, Isparta 32260, Turkey.
authors.forename: Mustafa
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Cagri Savas
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Süleyman Demirel University Medical School, Isparta 32260, Turkey.
authors.forename: Sirin
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Baspinar
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatric Surgery, Süleyman Demirel University Medical School, Isparta 32260, Turkey. Electronic address: leduman@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Levent
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Duman
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatric Surgery, Süleyman Demirel University Medical School, Isparta 32260, Turkey.
authors.forename: Behcet Ilker
authors.initials: BI
authors.lastname: Büyükyavuz
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D052816:Foreskin / Q000098:blood supply; D006801:Humans; D007021:Hypospadias / Q000378:metabolism / Q000503:physiopathology*; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D017078:Laser-Doppler Flowmetry; D008297:Male; D055806:Microvessels / Q000378:metabolism*; D010413:Penis / Q000098:blood supply*; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012039:Regional Blood Flow
keywords: Blood flow; Hypospadias; Laser Doppler flowmetry; Microvessel density; Prepuce