TRANSVAGINAL COLOR DOPPLER ULTRASOUND IN THE ASSESSMENT OF INVASIVE CERVICAL-CARCINOMA

Objective: To assess the validity of transvaginal color Doppler how in the prediction of malignancy in the uterine cervix, Study Design: Six teen women with cervical pathology (14 with invasive carcinoma and 2 w ith cervical intraepithelial neoplasia III) were examined using transv aginal sonography as well as transvaginal color Doppler with measureme nts of the resistance index of tumor blood flow. Twenty-four women wit h histologically proven normal cervices served as a control group. Res ults: Resistence index (RI) was significantly lower in the study group [0.493; 0.475-0.511 (mean + 95% CI)] than in the control group [0.643 ; 0.627-0.659] (P < 0.0001) (t'). There was no statistically significa nt difference between the carcinoma group and the CIN III cases (P = 0 .067) (t'). Only two cases with cervical carcinoma showed dense vascul arity with color Doppler. A RI cutoff less than or equal to 0.573 show ed a sensitivity of 81% with a specificity of 93%, a positive predicti ve value of 93%, and a negative predictive value of 81%. Conclusions: Color Doppler flow evaluation of RI in cervis vessels may aid in the e arly diagnosis and management of cervical carcinoma and in differentia ting benign from malignant tumors, The validity of this technique as a screening program for diagnosis is limited. (C) 1996 Academic Press, Inc.