Thursday 22 November 2007
TVUS superior for diagnosing deep endometriosis
Source: Human Reproduction 2007; 22: 3092-7
Assessing the efficacy of transvaginal sonography, magnetic resonance imaging, and digital vaginal examination as preoperative examinations for defining surgical strategies for deep endometriosis.
MedWire News: Transvaginal ultrasonography (TVUS) appears to be superior to magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and digital vaginal examination for diagnosing deep endometriosis, study findings show.
"Once deep endometriosis is suspected, one of the main questions related to this situation is which is the best image exam for obtaining confirmation of this hypothesis: MRI or TVUS?" note the researchers.
"Our findings show that TVUS performed using a specific protocol produces very satisfactory results."
Mauricio Abrao (Sao Paulo University, Brazil) and colleagues evaluated the capacity of TVUS, MRI, and digital vaginal examination to diagnose rectosigmoid and retrocervical involvement in 104 women with clinically suspected endometriosis.
A total of 98 of the women had histopathological confirmation of endometriosis. TVUS showed the highest sensitivity and specificity for detecting rectosigmoid and retrocervical sites, at 98 and 95 percent, respectively. Digital vaginal examination had a sensitivity of 72 percent and a specificity of 68 percent, while the respective values for MRI were 83 and 76 percent.
The researchers believe that TVUS is superior to MRI because of its ease in detecting small foci of the disease and following the trajectory of the bowel and its ability to identify the presence of multiple lesions.
Posted: 21 November 2007
http://www.orgyn.com/en/news/2007/We...94082335648148
TVUS superior for diagnosing deep endometriosis 
