Acoustic streaming: a new technique for assessing adnexal cysts

To determine whether acoustic streaming has clinical value in the differentiation between various ovarian and adnexal cysts.

We assessed 29 adnexal cysts, for which pathological diagnosis was available, for the presence of acoustic streaming during B-mode and color sonographic evaluation.

Acoustic streaming was detected in 15 (52%) of the cysts. The most common cyst, endometrioma (n = 7), did not exhibit acoustic streaming in any case, while of the remaining 22 cysts, 15 exhibited acoustic streaming (P = 0.0017). Dermoid cysts exhibited acoustic streaming in two of six (33%) cases. In addition acoustic streaming was noted in two of two (100%) hemorrhagic cysts, eight of ten (80%) cystadenomas, two of three (67%) malignant cysts and in the one abscess.

Acoustic streaming is the first sonographic feature that may be able to completely exclude endometrioma as a possible diagnosis for an adnexal cyst.