Clinicopathological features of different subtypes in adenomyosis: Focus on early lesions

The aim of this study is to investigate the clinicopathological features of intrinsic and extrinsic subtypes in adenomyosis. In particular, we focused on the early lesions of adenomyosis.

This is a single-center, prospective study of women who elected surgery for adenomyosis at the Department of Gynecology, Nara Medical University Hospital, Kashihara, Japan, from April 2008 to March 2018. Adenomyosis was histologically classified as intrinsic, extrinsic, and others, depending on the type of intramural growth. Adenomyosis that occurs at the inner and outer myometrium was defined as an intrinsic and extrinsic type, respectively.

One hundred eighty-nine patients with histologically confirmed adenomyosis were classified into three different types, 74 intrinsic type, 78 extrinsic type, and 37 other type. Compared to the intrinsic type, the extrinsic type was more likely to have endometriosis, including ovarian endometrioma (OMA), superficial peritoneal endometriosis (SUP), or deep infiltrating endometriosis (DIE). To further identify the clinicopathological features of early-stage adenomyosis, we focused only on patients with intrinsic and extrinsic types of adenomyosis with less than one-third of muscular layer infiltration. Patients with early-stage intrinsic adenomyosis were more likely to experience induced abortions. Patients with early-stage extrinsic adenomyosis were more likely to have endometriosis. The coexistence of endometriosis and the lack of induced abortion were independent predictors of extrinsic adenomyosis. Multivariate logistic regression analysis identified coexistence of endometriosis as independent predictors of the early stage extrinsic adenomyosis.

The study suggests that there are at least two types of adenomyosis, where the intrinsic type is closely associated with a history of induced abortion, while the extrinsic type is strongly associated with endometriosis. Adenomyosis might be a gynecological disorder with complex pathogenesis implicating both traumatic and endometriotic factors.