COMPARATIVE-STUDY OF TRANSVAGINAL ULTRASONOGRAPHY AND HYSTEROSCOPY INPOSTMENOPAUSAL BLEEDING

Twenty-eight women with postmenopausal bleeding were retrospectively s tudied to assess the accuracy of transvaginal sonography (TVS) and hys teroscopy for diagnosing endometrial pathology. TVS was performed in a ll patients. Considering a cutoff value of less than or equal to 5 mm as normal, TVS showed normal findings in 14 patients (50%) and suggest ed endometrial abnormalities in other 14 (50%). Hysteroscopy could be performed in 24 patients (85.7%). In 17 (70.2%) cases no abnormality w as found; an endometrial polyp was suspected in 6 (25%) and endometria l hyperplasia in 1 (4.8%) patient. All patients underwent endometrial biopsy or dilatation and curettage for histopathologic study. Sensitiv ity, specificity, and positive and negative predictive values for TVS and hysteroscopy were 100, 60.8, 35.7, and 100% and 100, 89.4, 71.4, a nd 100%, respectively. In our experience, both methods were highly sen sitive, but hysteroscopy was more specific than TVS.