ALİ İHSAN TAŞÇI, TURHAN ÇAŞKURLU, ÇETİN DİNÇEL, ZEKİ BAYRAKTAR, SEFA RESİM, HABİB AKBULUT
Kocatepe Tıp Dergisi - 1999;1(1):33-36
Venous diameter of internal spermatic vein or pampiniform plexus is used for diagnosis of subclinical varicocele. There are many cut off values and some controversies for the diagnosis and this fact causes a difficulty for evaluating both incidence and clinical studies. The aim of this study is to establish the reliability of measuring the diameter internal spermatic vein or pampiniform plexus in the diagnosis of subclinical varicocel. The diameters of pampiniform plexus veins were measured with scrotal gray scale ultrasonography(SU) in 61 infertile men with subclinical varicocele (diagnosed by color doppler ultrasonography and doppler wave spectral analysis), 100 infertile men with clinical left varicocele and 50 fertile men without clinical varicocele as a control group. ANOVA test was used in the statistical analysis of the results. No statistically significant difference was found between the pampiniform plexus vein diameters of infertile patients with subclinical varicocel and control subjects(p>0.()5) Vein diameters of patients with clinical varicocele were found lo be greater compared with other groups(p<0.01). Our results indicate that venous diameters should not be used as diagnostic criteria for subclinical varicocele.
