Correlation between transvaginal ultrasound measured endometrial thickness and histopathological findings in Turkish women with abnormal uterine bleeding.

Abstract

The present study aims to determine how transvaginal ultrasonography and histopathological examination findings are correlated in a cohort of premenopausal and postmenopausal Turkish women with abnormal uterine bleeding. This is a retrospective review of 350 Turkish women who underwent transvaginal ultrasonography and suction curettage as a result of abnormal uterine bleeding. Sonographic appearance of the endometrium was normal in 244 patients (69.7%), while homogeneous thickening was detected in 47 patients (13.4%) and cystic thickening in 21 patients (6.0%). A sonographic diagnosis of endometrial polyp was made in 38 patients (10.9%). Histopathological analysis of endometrial samplings revealed proliferative endometrium (36%), secretory endometrium (24.6%), decidualization (10.9%), endometrial polyp (8.3%), endometritis (6.8%), endometrial hyperplasia (4.6%), irregular shedding (3.7%), atrophic endometrium (3.1%), endometrial cancer (1.1%) and placental retention (0.9%). The sonographic and histopathological findings correlated significantly (χ(2) = 122768, P = 0.001; r = 0.215, P = 0.001). Approximately 51% of the women with homogeneous endometrial thickening had proliferative endometrium. Only 44.7% of the women with ultrasonographically visualized endometrial polyps had histopathologically diagnosed endometrial polyps. Nearly 57% of the women with cystic endometrial thickening had proliferative endometrium. If there is no facility for hysteroscopy or hysteroscopy-guided endometrial biopsy for women with abnormal uterine bleeding, transvaginal ultrasonography findings can be efficiently used to make a preliminary diagnosis and, thus, notify the pathologists.