Consistency of urethroscopy vs. high-frequency ultrasound in diagnosing male urethral condyloma acuminatum

Abstract

Abstract Objectives Urethral condyloma acuminatum(CA) is characterized by hidden growth, high treatment difficulty, high recurrence rate, and significant harm. Urethroscopy is a traditional method for examining male urethral CA. As a safe, non-invasive, highly reproducible, and cost-effective examination technique, ultrasound has been widely used for various diseases but is rarely utilized in the evaluation of urethral CA. The purpose of this study was to investigate the concordance between urethroscopy and urethral ultrasonography in the diagnosis of CA. Subjects and methods A total of 79 male patients with suspected urethral CA were recruited for this study. All patients underwent urethroscopy and urethral ultrasound examination. The results of endoscopic examination were compared with those of ultrasound, and the diagnostic efficacy of urethral ultrasound was evaluated based on the results of urethroscopy. The kappa value was calculated to assess the consistency between the two methods. Results The sensitivity, specificity, and overall accuracy of high-frequency ultrasound(HFUS) in the evaluation of urethral CA were 87.0%, 97.4%, and 93.07%, respectively. The consistency between HFUS and urethroscopy in the diagnosis of urethral CA was excellent (k = 0.856, P < 0.05). Conclusion Urethral ultrasound can be used as a preferred auxiliary method for clinical evaluation and follow-up of patients with urethral CA.