AGREEMENT BETWEEN 2 SUCCESSIVE TRANSVAGINAL SALPINGOSONOGRAPHY ASSESSMENTS OF TUBAL PATENCY

Objective. To evaluate the agreement between repeat transvaginal sonog raphic assessments of tubal patency using a combination of air and sal ine. Material and methods. Twenty-nine patients were examined twice by the same investigator (H.S.). There was a three-month interval betwee n the observations, and the investigator was blinded to the results of the first examination. Each patient was evaluated using three categor ies classified as: 1) bilateral patency; 2) unilateral patency and 3) bilateral occlusion. In addition, the pooled data from individual tube s was examined with respect to the detection of patency or occlusion. Data from the right and left tubes were analyzed separately as well. A greement between the two examinations was subsequently determined usin g Cohen's kappa coefficient (kappa). When there were more than two cat egories, a weighted kappa coefficient was used. Results. There was goo d (kappa=0.61) agreement between the two examinations when each patien t was evaluated individually. For the pooled data of all tubes (n=46), the kappa coefficient was 0.53, but increased to 0.66 after correctio n for prevalence. There was no systematic bias between the successive examinations of tubes. There was more consistency between repeated obs ervations in the right (kappa=0.70) than in the left (kappa=0.37) tube s. The prevalence of occlusion was higher in the left tubes. Conclusio n. Transvaginal salpingosonography was shown to be a reliable method f or the assessment of tubal patency.