Purpose: To prospectively evaluate feasibility and reproducibility of the semi quantitative measurement of the prostate’s unenhanced area on trans-abdominal contrast enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) performed immediately after prostate artery embolization (PAE) as a prognosis factor of success using a semi-quantitative measurement method.
Material and Methods: 39 patients with PAE were prospectively included. They all underwent pre and post PAE transabdominal prostate CEUS. Two readers independently evaluated semi-quantitavely the pre and post PAE devascularized area. Results were correlated to the clinical success evaluated 3 months after PAE defines as an international prostatic symptoms score (IPSS) drop over 25% and an index of quality of life (IQL) less than 3
Results: Twenty-two patients were analyzed. They all had bilateral PAE. Pre PAE transabdominal prostate CEUS showed a visible early and important enhancement of the whole prostate in all patients. After PAE, all patients had an unenhanced area semi quantitatively measured over 25%. The semi quantitative measurement found to be highly reproducible with an interclass correlation over 0.8. No correlation was found between devascularized area and the clinical success evaluated at three months
Conclusions: Trans-abdominal prostate CEUS performed early after PAE is a valuable and reproducible tool to evaluate prostate unenhanced areas
