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Transvaginal color Doppler ultrasonography for prediction of pre‐cancerous endometrial lesions
Author(s) -
Arslan M,
Erdem A,
Erdem M,
Yazici G,
Himmetoglu O,
Gursoy R
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
international journal of gynecology and obstetrics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.895
H-Index - 97
eISSN - 1879-3479
pISSN - 0020-7292
DOI - 10.1016/s0020-7292(02)00374-0
Subject(s) - endometrium , medicine , endometrial hyperplasia , radiology , carcinoma , gynecology , pathology
Objective: To determine whether measurements of blood flow in endometrial and uterine vessels by transvaginal color Doppler ultrasonography was valuable in the diagnosis of a neoplastic endometrial pathology (hyperplasia and carcinoma) in women with abnormal bleeding. Methods: This is a prospective study and included 105 post‐menopausal women and 33 pre‐menopausal women with abnormal uterine bleeding. All subjects underwent transvaginal color Doppler ultrasonography. We investigated whether obtained results were correlated with histopathological findings. Results: There was no significant difference in the mean±S.D. RI of the left and the right uterine arteries, intramyometrial arteries and endometrial arteries between patients with neoplastic and non‐neoplastic endometrium on histopathological examination. Doppler's velocity waveforms of small endometrial blood vessels could be detected in 9% of the women with non‐neoplastic endometrium and in 42% of the women with neoplastic endometrium ( P <0.05). The mean±S.D. of the endometrial thickness was significantly higher in the women with neoplastic endometrium than that of the women with non‐neoplastic endometrium (16.6±6.1 mm vs. 9.5±4.7 mm, P <0.05). Conclusion: Doppler's velocity waveforms of uterine vessels coupled with transvaginal ultrasonography are not valuable enough to replace histopathological examination in the diagnosis of a neoplastic endometrial pathology. However, it may be helpful in cases in which invasive techniques are difficult to perform and in the differentiation of a certain group of patients at little risk of endometrial carcinoma.