Diagnosis of ovarian tumors by transvaginal Doppler ultrasound with color flow imaging]

Ovarian carcinoma is a silent disease with few symptoms. Early detection of ovarian cancer is difficult. Transvaginal Doppler ultrasound with color flow imaging is a new technique in the evaluation of gynecological diseases. This method was used in the diagnosis of ovarian tumors in 39 women who were treated in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Nagoya University Hospital. Wave forms of the parenchymal tumor arteries or tumor surface arteries were compared by according to the pulsatility index (PI). 1/PI was 0.69 +/- 0.04 in benign tumor and 2.33 +/- 1.36 in malignant tumors (p less than 0.01). When the cutoff value of 1/PI was set at 0.8 (cutoff value of PI: 1.25), the accuracy of diagnosis was 84.6% (33/39). The accuracy of ultrasonographic pattern classification and CA125 were 74.4% (29/39) and 53.8% (21/39), respectively. In 18 tumors with low CA125 (less than 35 U/ml), 5 of 7 malignant tumors (71.4%) had high 1/PI (greater than 0.8), and benign tumor, low 1/PI (less than 0.8) or non-detectable wave forms. This procedure should prove to be useful in the diagnosis of ovarian cancer.