title: Routine use of saline hysterosonography in 500 consecutive, unselected, infertile women.
abstract: Saline hysterosonography was attempted as a routine, first-line screening test of uterine structure in 500 consecutive, unselected, infertile women. The procedure was completed in 96.8% (484/500) women and the observations were interpretable in 483 of these women. Intrauterine pathology was suspected in 67/499 (13.4%) women on plain ultrasound scan and 58/484 (12%) women with saline hysterosonography. Ultrasound alone had a superior specificity (96.3%) to sensitivity (81.8%) and better negative (97.6%) than positive (73.8%) predictive value for the detection of any intrauterine abnormality, using saline hysterosonography as the reference procedure. Suspected pathology at saline hysterosonography led to hysteroscopy in 20 women, after a median of 5.7 months (range, 1-14). The overall concordance rate between the two procedures was 65% with lesions suspicious of intrauterine polyps not present at subsequent hysteroscopy on six occasions. Criteria were established to help identify women with potentially self-limiting lesions, in whom a re-scan should be considered before resorting to hysteroscopy. The procedure was well tolerated with no significant complications. Saline hysterosonography appeared to be an acceptable first-line screening procedure for uterine structure which enhanced the predictive power of ultrasound alone for uterine anomalies and provided additional information which was potentially of value when planning operative hysteroscopy.
authors.affiliation: The Fertility Centre, Academic Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, St. Bartholomew's and the Royal London School of Medicine and Dentistry, St. Bartholomew's Hospital, UK.
authors.forename: J A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Hamilton
authors.forename: A J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Larson
authors.forename: A M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Lower
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hasnain
authors.forename: J G
authors.initials: JG
authors.lastname: Grudzinskas
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015907:Hysteroscopy / Q000379:methods; D007247:Infertility, Female / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000473:pathology; D014463:Ultrasonography; D014599:Uterus / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000473:pathology