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. 2017:2017:3205895.
doi: 10.1155/2017/3205895. Epub 2017 Dec 11.

Ultrasound in Infertility Setting: Optimal Strategy to Evaluate the Assessment of Tubal Patency

Luca Mandia  1 , Carlo Personeni  1 , Patrizio Antonazzo  1 , Salvatore Alessio Angileri  2 , Antonio Pinto  3 , Valeria Savasi  1
Affiliations

Ultrasound in Infertility Setting: Optimal Strategy to Evaluate the Assessment of Tubal Patency

Luca Mandia et al. Biomed Res Int. 2017.

Abstract

Tubal patency is a key element in women who are undergoing assisted reproductive techniques (ART), in order to attempt or exclude intrauterine insemination (IUI) cycles. Amongst the different procedures that can be used, without resorting to laparoscopy that remains the gold standard, hystero-salpingo-contrast sonography (HyCoSy) is an acceptable, time-efficient, and well tolerated option; it can be performed with administration of saline and air simultaneously or alternately (air/saline-HyCoSy), or with some other contrast agents, like SonoVue (sulfur hexafluoride microbubbles). In this paper, we describe two different studies: in the first one, our aim is to compare the efficiency of air/saline-HyCoSy with HyCoSy performed with contrast media (SonoVue), considering hysterosalpingography (HSG) and laparoscopy (LPS) as reference tests; in the second one, we estimate the pregnancy rate of a cohort of infertile women selected to undergo IUI cycles after tubal bilateral patency demonstration with air/saline-HyCoSy, to understand if this technique can be used as an efficient screening procedure in a Reproductive Unit.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Assessment of tubal patency with air/saline hysterosalpingography. (a) shows the image of anexa with US contrast. (b) Red arrows show the hyperechoic echo of air/saline contrast media.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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