INTRATUMORAL BLOOD-FLOW IN UTERINE MYOMA CORRELATED WITH A LOWER TUMOR SIZE AND VOLUME, BUT NOT CORRELATED WITH CELL-PROLIFERATION OR ANGIOGENESIS

Objective: To investigate the correlation of intratumoral blood now in uterine myoma with cell proliferation, angiogenesis, tumor size, and tumor volume. Methods: Thirty-nine patients who had been scheduled for surgery because of symptomatic uterine myomas were evaluated by trans vaginal sonography and color Doppler ultrasound before surgery. The la rgest dimension of each tumor and the volumes of myomas were determine d ultrasonographically. Pulsatility index (PI) was determined by color Doppler ultrasound according to the maximum systolic, end-diastolic, and the mean flow velocities measured within the uterine nodules. Afte r surgery, the paraffin-embedded slides containing representative leio myoma tissues were stained with hematoxylin and eosin, proliferating c ell nuclear antigen for measurement of cell proliferation, and factor VIII for quantitation of microvessel density. The ultrasonographic fin dings were correlated postoperatively with pathologic findings, and th e data were analyzed by simple linear regression and Fisher r to z tra nsformation. Results: Simple regression analysis of the intratumoral P I values on the sizes of myomas showed a negative correlation (r = -0. 47, P = .003; n = 39), whereas a less significant correlation between PI values and tumor volumes was observed (r = -0.42, P = .008). In con trast, no statistically significant correlation was observed between t he intratumoral PI values and the values of the proliferating cell nuc lear antigen index (r = 0.10, P = .547) or microvessel density counts (r = 0.18, P = .282). Conclusion: The intratumoral blood flow by trans vaginal color Doppler ultrasound correlated with a reduced tumor size and tumor volume, but did not correlate with cell proliferation or ang iogenesis.