Women with conditions such as adenomyosis and leiomyoma have increased myometrial stiffness that can be identified on ultrasound, wrote a team led by Dr. Man Zhang, PhD, from the University of Washington. For their study, Zhang and colleagues sought to evaluate myometrial stiffness using transvaginal ultrasound SWE, with pelvic MRI as the reference standard.
The research included 34 premenopausal women with no history of gynecologic malignancy who presented with pelvic pain and/or bleeding. The women underwent transvaginal ultrasound in SWE mode; Zhang's team noted regions of interest in the uterus and took multiple shear-wave velocity (SWV) measures for each, averaging the values for each location. For reference, the women also underwent pelvic MRI exams, which were reviewed for adenomyosis and/or leiomyomata by two radiologists blinded to the ultrasound findings. The mean time between the ultrasound and MRI exams was 11 days.
The mean SWV in 16 women with normal myometrium was 4.3 m/sec, compared with 5.7 m/sec in 18 women with adenomyosis or leiomyomata. MR found adenomyosis in six women across 12 uterine locations and leiomyomata in 12 women across 28 locations.
These findings suggest that myometrial SWVs identified on transvaginal shear-wave elastography are higher in women with adenomyosis or leiomyomata than in women with normal myometrium, Zhang and colleagues noted.
"Because women with benign myometrial conditions have increased myometrial stiffness ... ultrasound SWE may be helpful in diagnosis and treatment response assessment for these disorders," they concluded.
