The value of ultrasonography in the diagnosis of neoplastic and non-neoplastic testicular diseases in dogs

The study involved the ultrasonic examination of 144 tests from 93 dogs cas trated in the clinic for small animals of the School of Vetinary Medicine, Hannover. In all cases a histopathological examination was conducted. This revealed 27 Leydig cell tumours, 8 Sertoli cell tumours, 19 cases of hypopl asia, in extrascrotal testates, 17 cases of degeneration, 5 cases of chroni c orchitis and 9 cases of other non-neoplastic changes.No histological chan ges were detected in the 42 tests used as the control group. Four of 52 tum ours were not detected by ultrasonography. Of the 33 cases of cryptorchidis m , no extrascrotal testis was found in 6 on ultra sonography. No false pos itive diagnoses of structural alteration were made by ultrasonography. The evaluation of the selected echomorphological features(e.g. testis surface, mediastinum testis, echostructure and echodensity) revealed no reliable cha racteristics for the differentiation between the patient groups . Only a va sculated rim was found exclusively in Leydig cell tumours, but this was onl y observed in one third of this tumour type. A dependency on the size of tu mour and structural alteration , respectively, was observed for the mediast inum testis, the echostructure and the echodensity (p < 0.001). The results of the study indicated the limited value of ultrasonography in the differe nciation of neoplastic and degenerative testicular diseases of dogs.