Transvaginal ultrasonographic measurement of endometrial thickness: an intra-observer and interobserver reproducibility study

Abstract

Purpose: To assess reproducibility of transvaginal sonographic measurement of endometrial thickness.Methods: Thirty consecutive asymptomatic volunteers (all female; mean age: 46.9 years, SD: 9.5, range: 24–66 years) were entered in the study. In all cases, endometrial thickness was measured in a sagittal plane of the uterus at the level of the maximum estimated thickness, using transvaginal ultrasonography. All patients were examined by the two authors, one experienced (JLA) and the other inexperienced (AZ). Both examiners were blind to each other’s measurements. Two measurements were made by each examiner and intra- and interobserver reproducibility were tested by analysis of variance, using the intraclass correlation coefficient (rI).Results:Endometrial thickness could be measured by the two examiners in all cases. Both intra-observer reproducibility (rI=0.974 and rI=0.961 for examiners one and two, respectively) and interobserver reproducibility (rI=0.954) were high.Conclusion: Transvaginal sonographic measurement of endometrial thickness is highly reproducible.