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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Urol.
Sec. Endourology
Volume 4 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fruro.2024.1362734
This article is part of the Research Topic Insights in Endourology: Volume 1 View all 3 articles

Can Handheld Ultrasound Probes Reliably Measure Transabdominal Prostate and Bladder Volume? A Prospective Randomized Point of Care Ultrasound Study

Provisionally accepted
Henry C. Wright Henry C. Wright 1Dillon Corrigan Dillon Corrigan 2Smita De Smita De 2*
  • 1 Northwestern Medicine, Chicago, Illinois, United States
  • 2 Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, Ohio, United States

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Objectives: National guidelines recommend obtaining prostate gland volume (PGV) prior to benign prostate hyperplasia (BPH) surgery. Measurement of PGV with handheld ultrasound (HUS) probes shows promise. Objective: to compare reliability of two HUS probes (Butterfly IQ, Clarius C3) to BPH guideline recommended imaging (GIm) for both prostate and bladder volumetrics. Methods: Male patients with GIm were randomized to undergo transabdominal HUS PGV with one of the two probes. A subset underwent voided volume measurements with one of the two HUS and a conventional bladder scanner (BS). Reliability of the volume measurements was assessed for each probe via intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC). We utilized the following standard criteria: ICC < 0.5: poor reliability; 0.5 ≤ ICC < 0.75: moderate reliability; ICC ≥ 0.75: good reliability. Results: 78 men in the prostate arm (38 Butterfly, 40 Clarius) and 45 in the bladder arm (24 Butterfly, 21 Clarius) were randomized and included in this study. The mean prostate volume based on GIm was larger in the Clarius group (p=0.044). Other baseline characteristics were similar between groups (p>0.05). The ICCs were 0.78 (95% CI: 0.62, 0.88) and 0.71 (95% CI: 0.51, 0.83) for the Butterfly and Clarius probes, respectively. Regarding bladder volumetrics, the ICCs were 0.82 (95% CI: 0.19, 0.95), 0.72 (95% CI: 0.44, 0.88), and 0.69 (95% CI: 0.13, 0.87) for the Butterfly, Clarius, and bladder scanner, respectively. Conclusions: The Butterfly IQ demonstrated good reliability for PGV and voided volume measurements, in comparison to moderate reliability for Clarius C3.

    Keywords: Benign prostatic hyperplasia, BPH, ultrasound, Point of care ultrasound, PoCUS, handheld ultrasound

    Received: 28 Dec 2023; Accepted: 07 Oct 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Wright, Corrigan and De. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Smita De, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, 44195, Ohio, United States

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.