Achieva unit

All MRI examinations were performed on a 1.5-T Philips Achieva unit (Philips Healthcare, Best, The Netherlands) with a 16-channel SENSE XL Torso coil. Each patient received a bolus injection of GA (Primovist, 0.025 mmol/kg body weight; Bayer-Schering, Berlin, Germany) into a cubital or antecubital vein at a rate of 1 mL/s, followed by a 20-mL saline flush. A fat-suppressed three-dimensional T1-weighted gradient echo sequence was obtained without enhancement and in the hepatobiliary phase (20 min after contrast administration) with the following parameters: TR/TE = 4.0/2.0 ms, flip angle = 10^o, field of view = 38 cm, matrix = 192 × 190, interpolation to 224 × 224, slice thickness = 4.0 mm, overlap = 2.0 mm, and anteroposterior phase direction. A multi-echo two-dimensional gradient echo sequence with a 120-ms TR, 20° flip angle, and 12 multiple echoes of 1.2 ms duration was also obtained.

Imaging studies were performed in all subjects. An expert radiologist performed testicular assessments with the patient in a horizontal position. The images were obtained with General Electric Logiq 9 US machine, using a linear broadband transducer operating at a range of 10–14 MHz. Each testis was measured in three projections by using frozen B-mode sonography, starting with the largest longitudinal diameter, followed by the largest testicular depth, and the width was measured by turning the transducer 90° to provide a transverse projection of the testis. The US computer calculated testicular volume. All the testicular parenchyma of each testis was scanned. Testicular sonography also included color Doppler imaging. All the images were recorded in the Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine format.
MRI of the abdomen, pelvis and scrotum was also performed in selected cases. MRI was performed on a 1.5-Tesla Philips Achieva unit with a 14-cm circular surface coil. A T2-weighted fast spin-echo sequence with a 10 × 12 cm field of view and a 256 × 256 matrix in the three orthogonal planes were used for studying the scrotum.