SONOHYSTEROGRAPHY OF THE UTERINE CAVITY - PRELIMINARY INVESTIGATIONS

Objective: To compare sonohysterography (SH), in the exploration of th e uterine cavity, with classical transvaginal sonography (TVS), hyster ography (HSG), and hysteroscopy. Study design: 104 consecutive patient s evaluated for uterine disorders underwent both TVS and SH. SH was ob tained by distension of the uterine cavity with the instillation of an isotonic saline solution; 36 patients also underwent HSG; 82 women un derwent surgery. Histologic findings were considered as gold standard. The criteria used to compare these methods were sensitivity, specific ity, and negative and positive predictive values (NPV, PPV) for identi fying pathology. Results: 3 instillation failures occurred. SH was fou nd to be more effective (sensitivity 94%, specificity 98%) than HSG (s ensitivity 67%, specificity 94%). The difference between TVS and SH wa s less marked, SH showing some superiority (sensitivity 88%, specifici ty 98%) to TVS (sensitivity 77%, specificity 93%). Conclusion: SH repr esents an improvement over conventional TVS and is fully capable of re placing HSG for the study of the uterine cavity. (C) 1995 John Wiley a nd Sons, Inc.