J Korean Soc Med Ultrasound.  1999 Jun;18(2):105-110.

Analysis of Abnormally Thickened Endometrial Patterns on Trans vaginal Sonography

• Lee MS
• Cho HC

Abstract

PURPOSE: To determine whether the transvaginal sonographic appearance of the thickened endometrium can help to predict the underlying endometrial pathologic process.
MATERIALS and METHODS
The sonogram reports of all 41 pre-and 21 postmenopausal women who underwent transvaginal sonogram were retrospectively analyzed. The women undergoing estrogen replacement therapy, tamoxifen therapy or having abnormal cervical cytology were excluded from this study. The analysis of sonographic and histologic results was performed in all patients.
RESULTS
Three distinct sonographic patterns were encountered. Type I consisted of heterogeneous endometrial thickening with internal hypoechoic areas (normal[n=4], polyp[n=1] and cancer[n=4] in premenopausal women and cancer[n=4] in postmenopasual women). Type II consisted of echogenic endometrial thickening with or without tiny cysts (normal[n=5], & hyperplasia[n=7] in premenopasual women and normal[n=4], polyp[n=2], & hyperplasia[n=1] in postmenopausal women). Type III consisted of localized well defined endoluminal lesion (normal[n=1], polyp[n=14], hyperplasia[n=1], cancer[n=1], & submucosal mass[n=3] in premenopausal women and normal[n=4], polyp[n=2], submucosal mass[n=3], & hematoma[n=1] in postmenopausal women).
CONCLUSION
The measurement of the endometrial thickness combined with analysis of sonographic echopatterns may be helpful in prediction and differentiation of endometrial disease in pre- and postmenopausal women. Also it can contribute to avoiding unnecessory D&C.

MeSH Terms

Dilatation and Curettage
Endometrium
Estrogen Replacement Therapy
Female
Humans
Retrospective Studies
Tamoxifen
Ultrasonography
Uterine Diseases
Tamoxifen