Significance of negative hysteroscopic view in abnormal uterine bleeding

Ninety six cases of abnormal uterine bleeding were evaluated by both panoramic hysteroscopy and dilatation and curettage. The indications for hysteroscopy included postmenopausal bleeding, infertility with abnormal bleeding, abnormal bleeding and suspected leiomyoma with bleeding. Twenty three patients had abnormal hysteroscopy findings. Hysteroscopy diagnosed endometrial polyp and submucus leiomyoma with 100% accuracy. In 17 cases, the results of hysteroscopy and curettage were in agreement and hysteroscopy revealed more information than curettage in 6 cases. Among the remaining 73 cases with 'negative' hysteroscopic view, an abnormality was detected by tissue sampling in only 2 patients. The specificity and positive predictive value of hysteroscopy is 100%. The sensitivity of hysteroscopy was greater (92%) than that of curettage (76%) and the negative predictive value of hysteroscopy was 2.8%. Thus, panoramic hysteroscopy may prove to be superior to curettage in making an accurate diagnosis of intrauterine pathology.