Journal of Medical Diagnostic Methods
Open Access

Transrectal Elastosonography

Diagnostic accuracy studies that compared trans-rectal elastosonography with one of two reference standards in men with suspected prostate cancer were eligible for inclusion.Included studies were published from 2002 up to 2010. Half of the included studies were conducted in Europe, with the rest in Japan or the USA. Ten studies used trans rectal ultrasound-guided biopsy as the reference standard; the other trials used histopathology of radical prostatectomy specimen. Histopathology remains the mainstay of confirming the diagnosis of prostate cancer (PCa). Grey scale (B-mode) transrectal ultrasound (TRUS), which is based on increased brightness in relation to the strength of the echo, is widely used for prostate biopsies. The grey scale TRUS is useful in guiding needles into the desired region as per the biopsy protocol however, it does not differentiate between normal and cancerous tissue in up to 50% of the cases.