Power Doppler ultrasound: a potentially useful alternative in diagnosing pelvic pathologic conditions.
BACKGROUND
To evaluate the efficacy of power Doppler sonography in depicting soft-tissue hyperemia in endometriosis and other pelvic inflammatory conditions thirty-one patients with predominantly pelvic inflammatory symptoms were evaluated.


METHODS
Power Doppler sonography at 5 MHz and a pulse repetition frequency of 800 Hz was used. All the women underwent laparoscopy after 10 days.


RESULTS
Soft-tissue hyperemia was seen on power Doppler sonograms in 22 of the symptomatic patients. In these women Doppler demonstrated a diffused "blush" of almost or the entire symptomatic sites. Specificity was 52.4%, sensitivity 47.1% and the positive predictive value was 53.2%.


CONCLUSIONS
Power Doppler sonography showed hyperperfusion in many cases associated with pelvic inflammatory pathology. It is a potentially useful adjunct to standard color Doppler imaging in depiction of vascular flow.
Papadimitriou
A
A
2nd Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Athens, Areteion Hospital, Greece.
Kalogirou
D
D
Antoniou
G
G
Petridis
N
N
Kalogirou
O
O
Kalovidouris
A
A
D000328:Adult; D004715:Endometriosis / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D000292:Pelvic Inflammatory Disease / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D010388:Pelvis / Q000098:blood supply*; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D012039:Regional Blood Flow; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D018608:Ultrasonography, Doppler; D014591:Uterine Diseases / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*