title: Radionuclide hysterosalpingography does not distinguish between fertile women, before tubal sterilization, and infertile women.
abstract: The female genital tract is capable of active transport that can be demonstrated by serial scintigraphic imaging over time (radionuclide hysterosalpingography; RN-HSG). RN-HSG has been suggested to offer a more functional approach to tubal infertility diagnosis than conventional patency tests. However, before RN-HSG can be recommended as a routine method, its reliability in showing active transport in fertile women must be demonstrated. Therefore we compared RN-HSG in two groups: 38 fertile women before tubal sterilization and 38 women undergoing infertility work-up. Tubal transport demonstrated by RN-HSG was comparably distributed in both groups and classified as bilateral (17 versus 19), unilateral (12 versus 7) or no transport (6 versus 9). In each group three RN-HSG images were not interpretable. There was no association between patency test results and RN-HSG in the two groups. Our data suggest that RN-HSG in its present form does not seem to be a reliable method for infertility work-up. Because RN-HSG and patency tests most probably measure different properties of the genital tract, the phenomenon of active particle transportation should be studied further to enable the development of a reliable tool for the investigation of tubal function.
authors.affiliation: Department of Women and Child Health, Karolinska Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lundberg
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Wramsby
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bremmer
authors.forename: H J
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Lundberg
authors.forename: P E
authors.initials: PE
authors.lastname: Asard
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005187:Fallopian Tubes / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000601:surgery; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007247:Infertility, Female / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011877:Radionuclide Imaging; D013246:Sterilization, Tubal