Objective: To evaluate the performance of simultaneous endometrial aspiration at the time of sonohysterography for screening postmenopausal women at risk for endometrial cancer.
Methods: A retrospective cohort study of women older than 50 years who underwent saline-infusion sonohysterography for the evaluation of their endometrium. On completion of imaging, the remaining intracavitary saline and endometrial tissue were aspirated through the saline-infusion sonohysterography catheter and submitted for pathologic evaluation. Based on the clinical, pathologic, and ultrasonographic results, the patients underwent surgical treatment with hysteroscopy, hysterectomy, or clinical observation. Follow-up results and outcomes were collected using electronic medical records. Sensitivity, specificity, and predictive values of saline-infusion sonohysterography, endometrial aspiration, and combined approaches for endometrial aspiration and sonohysterography were assessed.
Results: Six hundred three patients underwent endometrial aspiration at the time of sonohysterography. Endometrial tissue was present in 567 (94.0%) and outcome data were available for 540 (89.5%). In 194 (35.9%) patients, final pathology was obtained by surgical intervention. The remaining 346 (64.1%) patients were monitored for at least 6 months. Thirty patients (5.6%) had cancer or endometrial hyperplasia. A sequential model, in which endometrial aspiration was done only for positive saline-infusion sonohysterography findings, yielded sensitivity of 86.7% (95% confidence interval [CI] 69-96%) and specificity of 100% (95% CI 99-100%) for detecting endometrial hyperplasia or cancer (area under the curve 0.93). Considering proliferative endometrium as abnormal endometrial aspiration reduced specificity to 88.3% (95% CI 85-91%, P<.01) without significant increase in sensitivity (100%, 95% CI 88-100%, P=.13).
Conclusion: The high sensitivity and specificity of the sequential endometrial aspiration at the time of sonohysterography make this approach a useful and reliable screening algorithm for detecting endometrial cancer or hyperplasia in postmenopausal women at risk. Endometrial aspiration at the time of sonohysterography should be considered as an initial one-stop endometrial evaluation in this population.