Initial experiences with real-time elastography guided biopsies of the prostate

Purpose: Based on our first experiences with real-time elastography in the field of prostate diagnostics we evaluate its usefulness for biopsy guidance for prostate cancer detection. Materials and Methods: After imaging with conventional B-mode ultrasound in conjunction with real-time elastography 404 men underwent systematic sextant biopsy. Results: Overall prostate cancer was found in 151 of 404 cases (37.4%). In 127 of 151 cases (84.1%), prostate cancer was detected using real-time elastography as an additional diagnostic feature. Conclusions: The results show that it is possible to detect prostate cancer with a high degree of sensitivity using real-time elastography in conjunction with conventional diagnostic methods for guided prostate biopsies.