Transvaginal Doppler examination for the differential diagnosis of solid pelvic tumors

To evaluate the ability of transvaginal Doppler examination to discriminate between different types of solid pelvic tumors, 55 women scheduled for laparotomy because of a solid pelvic mass underwent transvaginal sonographic examination, including color and spectral Doppler techniques. Arteries in the wall and core of each mass were examined. The histological diagnoses were as follows: uterine myoma (n = 28), malignant ovarian tumor (n = 19), and benign ovarian tumor (n = 8). Pulsatility index values tended to be highest in the malignant ovarian tumors, albeit with considerable overlap with respect to the other tumor types. The respective median pulsatility index values for arteries in the wall and core of the malignant ovarian tumors were 0.93 and 0.87, versus 0.65 and 0.51 in the benign ovarian tumors and 0.80 and 0.67 in the myomas. Time-averaged maximum velocity did not differ significantly among the three types of tumor. We conclude that Doppler measurement of blood flow velocity in tumor arteries does not add substantial information to the differential diagnosis between myomas and benign or malignant solid ovarian tumors.