Assessment of in vivo calculation with ultrasonography compared to physical sections in vitro: a stereological study of prostate volumes

Abstract

We compared three methods for the determination of prostate volume: prostate volume measured via transrectal ultrasonography (TRUS); the Cavalieri method for measuring physical sections; and volume by displacement. TRUS volumes were calculated by the prolate ellipsoid volume formula. Five patients underwent TRUS examination of the prostate prior to radical prostatectomy; specimens were measured when freshly excised. Mean prostate volume by fluid displacement, before formalin fixation was 52.8 ± 21.5 cm(3), and after formalin fixation 50.4 ± 20.9 cm(3). Volumes determined by the Cavalieri principle (point-counting and planimetry) were 47.8 ± 19.3 and 49.1 ± 20.5 cm(3); volume measured by TRUS was 42.9 ± 21.9 cm(3). Thus TRUS underestimated prostate volume by 21.4%, but excellent agreement was found between actual volume and point counting techniques. We believe that the classic ellipsoid formula is inadequate for determining prostate volume.

Age-related changes of nasal cavity and conchae volumes and volume fractions in children: a stereological study

“…Evaluation of the accuracy of acoustic rhinometry is more difficult because of the lack of a gold standard. Some researchers demonstrated that stereological results are very close to gold standard results in their studies [1,3]. In addition, stereology method provides a CE of the measurement of the volume of the structure of interest.…”

“…Stereological methods provide quantitative data on 3-dimensional structures using 2-dimensional images. The Cavalier theorem of systematic sampling in combination with point-counting is considered an unbiased, simple, inexpensive and efficient method and is ideally suitable for estimating volumes on magnetic resonance (MR) and CT images [3,7]. Volumetric analysis by CT and MR data using Cavalieri method are commonly used and its high rate of reproducibility and reliability has been verified in various studies [1,2,15].…”

Early Detection of Atrophy of Foot Muscles in Chinese Patients of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus by High-Frequency Ultrasonography

“…The previous studies [12, 13] and ours used the two-dimensional images of ultrasonography for analysis. Although there is a good correlation among the thickness, cross-sectional area, and volume of muscles [34], the 3D imaging combined with the unbiased stereological analysis is expected to provide the information of volume change more directly [35]. …”

Estimation of spleen volume and surface area of the newborns’ cadaveric spleen using stereological methods

“…Those studies have used Cavalieri's principle, a stereological method for organ volume measurement [1,2,9]. The volumes of organs such as heart [27], liver [33], prostate [3], ventricle [22], brain [24], and also the volume of foetus [29], have been measured using MR imaging and Cavalieri's principle.…”

“…They compared results, which were obtained by the fluid displacement technique and stereological method. Acer et al [3] performed volumetric measurements on the prostate glands, obtained after radical prostatectomy, of 5 adults using USG and Archimedes' principle. They employed ellipsoid formula for the volumetric calculation by USG.…”