Clinicopathologic Study of the Endometrium of Dysfunctional Uterine Bleeding

Cho, Nam Hoon; Park, Chan Il; Choi, In Joon

Abstract

One of the most common symptoms in gynecologic disorders is an abnormal utirine bleeding, of which dysfuncyional uterine bleeding (DUB) is frequently encountered. DUB is defined as an endocrinologic imbalance of the axis of hypothalamus-pituitary-ovary-endometrium without organic diseases such as a neoplasm, and inflammation, a pregnancy, a trauma, Although the correct diagnosis of DUB depends on various assessements such as a menstrual cycle, basal body temperature, endocrine assay, vaginal cytology and endometrial histology, in many circumstances pathologist have only the endometrial histology with trivial clinical information to make a diagnosis. Therefore, the present study was aimed at assessing the pattern of the endometrium as precisely as possible. The histologic pattern was classified according to the Handrickson and kempson classification (1980). The authors also attempted to correlate the non-neoplastic metaplasia with the endometrial histology. The material consisted of 447 cases of endometrial curettage specimens diagnosed clinically as DUB during recent 4 years. The histologic examination was carried out through the routine formalin fixed-paraffin embedding method, followed by hematoxylin-eosin staining in routine and other special staining as required. The following results were obtained; 1) The pattern of the endometrium in DUB was predominently the proliferative type (239 cases, 65.55%). Of these 293 cases, 144 were of the abnormal proliferatrive phase, and particulary most were the disordered proliferative phase. The remaining 154 cases (34.45%) were found to have secretory endometrium, of which 50 cases belonged to the abnormal secretory type. Most of the cases shewing abnormal secretory patterns appeared dyssynchronous or underdeveloped. 2) Of the 361 patients with DUB for whom the clinical records were available, 197 (54.57%) were non-ovulatory and 118 (32.69%) were ovulatory. 3) Non-neoplasic metaplasia was found in 87 cases, of which ciliiated and papillary types were most common. The endometrium was of the proliferative phase in 73.56% of the cases with metaplasia, and the disordered proliferative pattern showed a particular correlation with the metaplasia (44 cases). 4) Among 63 postmenopausal DUB patients, 52 (82.53%) appeared to have the proliferative endometrium, and in particular 23 (36.51%) had the disordered proliferative endometrium.