[Serial ultrasonography of the endometrium and endocervix during the normal menstrual cycle in women]

Abstract

Articles on ultrasound of the human endometrium are in the majority of the cases based on studies of patients who have infertility and are taking drugs to induce ovulation. Such investigations do not include histological study of the endometrium and have focused on the ovulatory period. There is controversy in the interpretation of the images. PURPOSE--To evaluate the sonographic appearance of the endometrium during the normal menstrual cycle. METHODS--We studied 15 multiparous women with normal cycles, and who were not under drugs for ovulation induction, had neither IUD, nor were having oral hormonal contraceptives. They were seen on the first, seventh, fourteenth, and twentieth-first days of the menstrual cycle. The sonographic aspects were compared with the histological findings. RESULTS--We could see the images of the endometrium on the first day of the cycle in 66.66% of the patients. On the other visits we could study properly its features very well in all the patients. The endometrial image thickness increased in a linear pattern and the hypoechogenic halo was seen in 93.33% of the patients on the twentieth-first day of the menstrual cycle. CONCLUSION--The cyclic changes of the endometrium were shown with the sonography. The cyclic changes of the endocervix were evaluated too with the sonogram although they are not as remarkable as the endometrial ones.