Doppler ultrasound assessment of endometrial pathology

Abstract

In forty-five metrorrhagic patients, transvaginal Doppler ultrasound examinations were performed in order to test the correlation between the modified resistance index (RI) of the uterine and intramyometrial arteries and the histopathologic findings. Uterine volume (UV) and endometrial thickness (ET) were studied. The results were compared with 19 otherwise normal patients. UV and ET were found increased in metrorrhagic patients with abnormal histopathology. These showed a significant decrease in intramyometrial RI (66.7 +/- 15.9) and uterine RI (79.6 +/- 9.4) compared with a control group (intramyometrial RI: 78.8 +/- 16; uterine RI: 87.8 +/- 9.4). Uterine resistance was significantly greater in patients with normal histopathology (intramyometrial RI: 94.2 +/- 13.2; uterine RI: 89.1 +/- 9.3). Only three false-positive and three false-negative results were found upon analysing the predictive accuracy of intramyometrial Doppler examinations. However, the uterine resistance index was less specific. Although transvaginal Doppler velocimetry cannot replace histopathologic diagnosis, it does provide a high prognostic precision in cases of metrorrhagia.