[Ultrasound assessment of the postmenopausal endometrium. Is measuring thickness adequate?]

Ultraschall Med. 1994 Jun;15(3):117-21. doi: 10.1055/s-2007-1003944.
[Article in German]

Abstract

Sonographic assessment of the endometrium in postmenopausal women is generally based on total thickness as only criterion. The cut-off values recommended in literature, however, vary considerably. The purpose of this study was to examine the significance of sono-morphology besides biometry of the endometrium. If vaginosonography showed an endometrial thickness of 3 mm or less, all histological findings were inconspicuous; beginning at a thickness of 10 mm only hyperplasias, polyps and carcinomas were found. In the range between, including more than one-third of our patients, the structure can point out the type of histology: Homogeneity, low echogeneity and a median echo are not important findings, but inhomogeneity and high echogeneity point to pathological changes of the endometrium. Using combined, metric-structural criteria in vaginosonography of the endometrium, not only the predictivity, but above all the selectivity is improved.

MeSH terms

  • Adenoma / diagnostic imaging
  • Aged
  • Aged, 80 and over
  • Carcinoma / diagnostic imaging
  • Diagnosis, Differential
  • Endometrial Hyperplasia / diagnostic imaging*
  • Endometrial Neoplasms / diagnostic imaging*
  • Endometrium / diagnostic imaging
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Middle Aged
  • Polyps / diagnostic imaging
  • Reference Values
  • Ultrasonography