Ultrasound Measurement of Testicular Volume in Healthy Nigerian Adults

Testicular volume is one of the important indices that depict the reproductive capability of a man. The diagnosis of androgenic and testicular diseases depends on the ability to elicit minimal changes in the testicular volume. There is however a paucity of data for testicular volume measurements by ultrasound in Nigeria, thus necessitating the need for accurate data on the volume of the testes in Nigerian men. We sought to establish the normal testicular volume in healthy Nigerian adults, comparing the volume of the right and left testis and to correlate the testicular volume and age, body weight, height and body mass index (BMI) respectively. The length, width and height of the testes were measured in 200 participants aged 18 to 64 years using an Aloka SSD 2500 machine with a 7.5Hz linear transducer. The mediastinum testes and rete testis were used as the land marks to identify the sagittal and transverse planes respectively and the Lamberts formula (L x W x H x 0.71) was used to calculate the testicular volume. The mean age and BMI were 31.6+9.9 years and 23.7+4.0 kg/m2 respectively while the mean testicular volume in the study population was 15.6+5.3cm3. The mean testicular volume was 16.3+5.4cm3 on the right and 15.0+5.9cm3 on the left and that of the right testis was significantly greater than the left, p<0.05. There was a positive but weak correlation between subjects’ height and volume of the right testis. Similarly, their weight and BMI also showed a positive but weak correlation with the volume of the right testis and the mean testicular volume. The mean testicular volume for healthy adult males in our environment is 15.6+5.3cm3 with the mean volume of the right and left testis being 16.3+5.4cm3 and 15.0+5.9cm3 respectively. It is hoped that these values would serve as a reference for future clinical works.