Application of virtual touch tissue imaging quantification (VTIQ) for diagnosing vascular penile erectile dysfunction

Abstract

Objective

To investigate the value of virtual touch tissue imaging quantification (VTIQ) in the diagnosis of vascular penile erectile dysfunction.

Methods

Sixty male examinees from January 2024 to March 2025 were selected as the study subjects. After erection was induced by oral sildenafil combined with visual and auditory stimulation, the subjects were divided into normal group, arterial ED group, venous ED group and mixed ED group using color Doppler ultrasound (CDUS) diagnosis as the gold standard, and the cavernosal shear wave velocity (SWV) of each group was measured using VTIQ technique to compare the differences between groups and analyze the feasibility of VTIQ in the diagnosis of vascular penile erectile dysfunction.

Results

The measurement of different positions of corpus cavernosum affected the shear wave velocity (P < 0.05). There was a significant difference in shear wave velocity between the corpus cavernosum with normal erectile function and the corpus cavernosum with erectile dysfunction. Shear wave velocity in the corpus cavernosum was correlated with the location measured, the presence of vascular penile erectile dysfunction, and the peak velocity of the corpus cavernosum artery (all P < 0.05). The diagnostic efficacy of cavernosal shear wave velocity for vascular penile erectile dysfunction (arterial ED, venous ED, and mixed ED) was 0.93 (95 % CI: 0.87–0.98), the optimal cutoff value of cavernosal shear wave velocity was 2.85 m/s, the sensitivity was 88.9 % (88.9 % of ED patients could be correctly identified), and the specificity was 86.7 % (86.7 % of normal subjects could be correctly excluded).

Conclusion

Virtual touch tissue imaging quantification technique(VTIQ) can quantitatively evaluate the hardness of corpus cavernosum and provide reliable imaging evidence for the diagnosis and treatment of vascular ED, which has high clinical value.