Tj. Dubinsky et al., TRANSVAGINAL HYSTEROSONOGRAPHY IN THE EVALUATION OF SMALL ENDOLUMINALMASSES, Journal of ultrasound in medicine, 14(1), 1995, pp. 1-6
Citations number
34
Categorie Soggetti
Acoustics,"Radiology,Nuclear Medicine & Medical Imaging
Transvaginal sonography is highly sensitive for detecting endometrial
mass lesions, but it is nonspecific. Biopsies performed on patients wi
th abnormal findings seen on TVS often are negative. We performed tran
svaginal hysterosonography prospectively on 48 consecutive patients wi
th endometrial thickness demonstrated on TVS to be between 5 and 10 mm
to assess whether this technique would be useful in the evaluation of
such patients. TVHS is a simple, painless technique that is performed
by placing a small catheter into the endometrial canal and infusing a
small amount of saline solution under sonographic visualization. Of 4
8 suspected lesions, TVHS confirmed only 19 endoluminal masses: 11 fib
roids and eight polyps. Polyps tended to be homogeneously echogenic an
d to have a pedunculated attachment to the uterine wall without interr
uption of the endometrial lining. Fibroids showed more heterogeneous e
chogenicity and had a more sessile attachment. Four patients in our se
ries had false-negative biopsy results prior to having had endometrial
mass lesions depicted on TVHS. TVHS may prevent unnecessary biopsies
in those patients who appear to have abnormalities on TVS. By depictin
g the nature of the attachment of endoluminal masses to the uterine wa
ll more clearly, TVHS also may help direct subsequent biopsy procedure
s.