COLOR DOPPLER IMAGING OF THE ACUTE PEDIATRIC SCROTUM

The differentiation of the causes of acute scrotal pathology by clinic al means alone is prone to inaccuracy, resulting in inappropriate surg ical exploration. Colour Doppler imaging (CDI) provides the facility t o assess blood flow. Torsion of the testis impedes blood flow, whereas it is enhanced or normal in inflammatory pathology. We have investiga ted 40 cases of acute scrotal disease by means of CDI in which the rad iologist performing the test was unaware of the preliminary clinical d iagnosis. The clinical diagnostic accuracy was 60 %, whereas the diagn ostic accuracy of CDI was 82 %. CDI provides an effective means of enh ancing diagnostic accuracy.