Imaging in Gynecology

Abstract

In the summer of 1992, Paula Woodward joined the faculty of the University of Utah as the chief of Abdominal Imaging. Her first (and best) body imaging fellow was Anne Kennedy! We have been the best of friends ever since so it was a pleasure to work on this project. To this day, we benefit from the wisdom and foresight of Dr Scott and Dr Bragg who were the then chairmen of OBGYN and Radiology, respectively. It was clear to them that the best way forward was collaboration and multidisciplinary care of patients. With that in mind they established a joint venture in Obstetric Imaging that has resulted in an ongoing exchange of ideas and information between the 2 departments and this collaboration naturally spilled over to gynecologic imaging. With continued collaboration in mind, we put together the following series of topics: Imaging of Acute Pelvic Pain, Multimodality Imaging of Benign Adnexal Masses, Ovarian Cancer Detection and Radiologic Staging, Imaging of Cervical Pathology, Imaging of Endometrial Pathology, and Imaging of Mullerian Duct Anomalies. With the help of colleagues and partners from around the country we share “radiology secrets” for pattern recognition in the evaluation of the adnexal mass and the causes of acute pelvic pain. Mullerian duct anomalies are a continued source of fascination; clearly patients do not read the classification systems! Imaging is an important component of the evaluation of this group of patients who may present with primary amenorrhea, infertility, or recurrent pregnancy loss. Close communication between imagers and surgeons is vital in the diagnosis, treatment, and follow-up of patients with gynecologic malignancy. Recognition of benign entities also prevents inappropriate intervention therefore we felt it was important to review imaging features of benign and malignant ovarian, endometrial, and cervical disease processes. The finished product is a complete review of these important clinical issues. There are probably more pictures than usually seen in this series but as “a picture paints a thousand words” looking at the figures will save everyone a lot of reading time and pattern recognition is much easier with a strong visual database. We look forward to continued exchange of information and discussion of unusual cases with our gynecology colleagues.