Preoperative diagnosis of ovarian malignancies with intravenous digital subtraction angiography

Intravenous digital subtraction angiography was performed on 59 patients with ovarian tumors. Dilatation of the uterine artery and its ovarian branch was relatively frequent in both benign and malignant tumor groups, while dilation of the ovarian artery, and hypervascularity from the uterine artery or the ovarian artery were fairly specific to the malignant tumor group. These five abnormal vascular patterns were evaluated by a scoring system and approximately 75% of malignant and 87% of benign ovarian tumors were correctly diagnosed preoperatively by digital subtraction angiography alone. Intravenous digital subtraction angiography can be applied as an easy, safe, and valuable diagnostic method for ovarian malignancies and can replace conventional pelvic angiography.