Pre-operative assessment of benign and malignant ovarian tumours using colour Doppler ultrasonography

Ultrasonography of 56 women with adenexal masses who were admitted for laparotomy were done mainly by transvaginal route. Though Gray scale morphologic evaluations of masses were done routinely, only colour Doppler imaging criteria were taken into consideration in this study. These are pulsatility index (PI), resistance index (RI), peak systolic velocity (PSV), timed average maximal velocity (TAMXV), vessels localisation and dicrotic notch. Histopathological examination was done and considered as gold standard. In 83.78% cases of benign tumour PI is equal or greater than 1, whereas it was less than 1 in 84.21% in malignant ovarian tumour. The sensitivity, specificity, PPV and NPV were respectively 84.21%, 83.78%, 72.72% and 91.11%. RI in benign tumours were equal to or more than 0.4 in 81.08% and less than 0.4 in 68.42% in case of malignant tumours. The sensitivity, specificity, PPV and NPV were respectively 68.42%, 81.08%, 65% and 83.33%. Considering the TAMXV>12 cm/second as a criterion for malignancy the sensitivity, specificity, PPV and NPV were respectively 89.45%, 89.19%, 80.95% and 94.28%, and also considering septal/central localisation of vessels as a criterion for malignancy, it was found the sensitivity, specificity, PPV and NPV were 89.47%, 62.16%, 54.84% and 92% respectively. Considering absence of dicrotic notch for malignant tumours we found sensitivity, specificity, PPV and NPV were 89.47%, 81.08%, 70.83% and 93.75% respectively. The above findings of the PI, TAMXV and dicrotic notch evaluation show most useful was colour Doppler parameters for pre-operative screening for ovarian malignancy in this study.