title: Diagnosis of pelvic varicosities in women with chronic pelvic pain.
abstract: 45 women with a history of lower-abdominal pain of more than 6 months' duration for which no obvious cause had been found during laparoscopy (pelvic-pain syndrome) were investigated with transuterine pelvic venography. For comparison venography was carried out on 10 women in whom pathology was considered to be a likely cause for their pain and 8 women admitted for tubal ligation and who had no pain. Pelvic varicosities and congestion unrelated to parity or the menstrual cycle were commonly found in women with the pelvic-pain syndrome. A score for quantifying the severity of the pelvic vascular abnormalities has been devised; a value of 5 or more gave a diagnostic sensitivity of 91% and a specificity of 89% for the pelvic-pain syndrome.
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002908:Chronic Disease; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D010053:Ovary / Q000098:blood supply; D010146:Pain / Q000209:etiology*; D010388:Pelvis / Q000098:blood supply*; D010690:Phlebography; D014648:Varicose Veins / Q000150:complications / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000473:pathology; D014680:Veins / Q000473:pathology