A descriptive study of Endometrial Biopsies in perimenopausal women having Abnormal uterine bleeding

Abstract

Abnormal uterine bleeding (AUB) is one of the commonest symptom with which the perimenopausal female visits the gynaecologist accounting for over 70% of all gynecological consultations in that age group. The clinical presentation of AUB can range anywhere menorrhagia, polymenorrhea, polymenorrhagia, metrorrhagia, and menometrorrhagia. Though biopsy is the gold standard it is an invasive procedure and hence often an Ultrasound is used to evaluate the pathology of the endometrium routinely hence, we decided to study the accuracy between radiological ET thickened and its usefulness in detecting endometrial pathology. This study was carried out in the Department of Pathology at AJIMS, Mangalore for a period of 2 years. The sample included endometrial biopies and hysterectomy specimens of perimenopausal women for AUB. The ultrasonographic findings and Histopathological (HPE) reports were analysed. Among 101 cases for AUB, 67 cases were diagnosed as non secretory endometrium. Out of these 67 cases, 49 cases were associated with fibroids. Out of the rest of the AUB cases, 31 of them were diagnosed to have endometrial hyperplasia and 3 cases were diagnosed to have endometrial carcinoma. USG thickness of 17(54%) out of 31 endometrial hyperplasia cases were abnormal. Radiological and pathological evaluation were concordant with diagnosis of AUB associated with fibroids. However only 54% of the endometrial hyperplasia were found to have abnormal endometrial thickness. Radiological evaluation of endometrial thickness is not concordant in 46 % of the cases. This implies that histopathological examination is gold standard diagnostic tool for endometrial abnormalities in perimenopausal women.