Power Doppler angiographic appearance and blood flow velocity waveforms ininvasive cervical carcinoma

Objectives. The aim of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of t ransvaginal power Doppler angiography in predicting cervical malignancy by detecting intratumoral blood flow and to understand the relationship betwee n squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) serum levels and intratumoral blood flow an alysis of invasive cervical carcinoma before treatment, Methods. Thirty-eight patients with cervical carcinoma (35 with stages Ia t o IVb invasive carcinoma, 3 with cervical carcinoma in situ) were enrolled for the evaluation of tumor flow using transvaginal ultrasound accompanied with power Doppler angiography before surgery. The pulsatility, resistance index, and vascular index of tumor flow were measured. Thirty patients with proven healthy cervices were used as the control group. Pretreatment SCC s erum levels were obtained in 34 women with cervical carcinoma. Results, The pulsatility index and resistance index were significantly lowe r in the study group than in the control group (P < 0.0001). The vascular i ndex was also significantly lower in the study group than in the control gr oup (P < 0.0001). There were no significant differences among patients with SCC type and non-SCC type cervical carcinoma (P > 0.05) among the six para meters. There was no significant correlation between the pretreatment SCC s erum levels with any of the six parameters obtained from the intratumoral b lood flow analysis in the SCC group. Conclusions, Transvaginal ultrasound with power Doppler angiography is a va luable diagnostic tool for differentiating benign tumors of the cervix from malignant ones, Intratumoral blood Row of the cervix supplied us with prac tical diagnostic information before surgery and may aid in early prediction and management of cervical carcinoma. The use of transvaginal ultrasound w ith power Doppler angiography in the grading of vascularity ratio within ce rvical masses provided more sonographic characteristics among the different subclassifications of cervical cancer and is more useful than color Dopple r imaging in the visualization of sonographic morphology. (C) 2000 Academic Press.