value of measuring endometrial thickness and volume as well as color doppler velocimetry of the uterine artery in evaluating postmenopausal bleeding

ABSTRACT

To evaluate the role of ultrasonographic measurement of endometrial thickness and volume and measurement of uterine artery Doppler indices as markers of endometrial pathology in women presenting with postmenopausal bleeding. Prospective clinical trial. Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology. Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt. Endometrial thickness and volume [by 2D ultrasound respectively], blood flow [from resistance index of the uterine artery by colour Doppler] were examined in women with postmenopausal bleeding. The results obtained were compared with that of histopathological examination of the endometrium obtained by full curettage of the uteri of these eases. There was a significant difference between cases having benign endometrium and those with malignant endometrium as regard to endometrial thickness, endometrial volume and resistance index of the uterine artery. Cut-off values of 15.7 mm, 9.5 mL and 0.8 for endometrial thickness, endometrial volume and resistance index of the uterine artery respectively, were taken to differentiate benign from malignant endometrium. Both transvaginal ultrasonographic endometrial examination and Doppler velocimetric study of the uterine artery posses high sensitivity and specificity that makes each of them clinically useful as a screening tool in discriminating atrophic from abnormal pathological endometrium in cases with postmenopausal bleeding and to decrease as much as possible the false results that may occur in either of them alone