Sonographic Findings of Endometrial Polyps / 대한산부인과학회지

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: To characterize the sonographic findings of endometrial polyp and to differentiate it from other endometrial lesions. METHODS: Using transvaginal sonography, preoperative sonographic findings of pathologically proven endometrial polyp in 24 patients were retrospectively evaluated for the size, margin, echogenicity, nature (cystic, solid, mixed), and blood flow signal by color Doppler sonography (CDS). The t-test was used to check the statistical significance for Resistive index (RI) between endometrial polyp and other endometrial lesions. RESULTS: Of 110 patients studied for abnormal vaginal bleeding, 24 (21.9%) patients had endometrial polyps, 4 (3.6%) patients had secretory phased endometriums, 4 (3.6%) patients had submucosal myomas, 4 (3.6%) had retained placentaes, 1 (0.9%) had endometrial hyperplasia, 1 (0.9%) had blood clot, 1 (0.9%) had endometrial carcinoma and 71 (64.6%) patients had normal findings. The sonographic findings of endometrial polyp were well defined (24 patients), round (16 patients), hyperechoic (20 patients), and solid mass (21 patients). Using transvaginal CDS, the location of blood flow (9 patients) showed a single feeding artery with a mean RI of 0.60. There were no statistical significant differences between endometrial polyp and other endometrial lesions in arterial waveform (mean RI 0.6) by transvaginal CDS (p>0.05). CONCLUSION: Endometrial polyp has a characteristic sonographic appearance of a well-defined, hyperechoic round mass by transvaginal sonography. In addition, it contains a single feeding vessel to the vascular stalk with a characteristic color Doppler signal detected by transvaginal CDS. These findings enable us to make differential diagnosis from other endometrial lesions.