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Sonomorphology of endometriotic cysts
A Suren1, R Osmers, M Dietrich
1Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Göttingen, Germany.
Objective:
The aim of the study was to evaluate prospectively the sonomorphological feature of histologically verified endometriotic cysts.
Methods:
Transvaginal sonography was performed in 122 patients. Age distribution of the patients, and size and sonomorphology of the lesions were analyzed.
Results:
Eighty-one percent of the endometriotic cysts occurred in patients between 31 and 50 years old with a peak of 29% between 31 and 35 years. Most of the cysts (81%) ranged between 30 and 59 mm in diameter. Forty-three percent of the endometriotic cysts were observed as monolocular cysts with internal echoes. More than half of the findings were observed to be multilocular, partially without any internal echos, partially even with solid parts or purely solid.
Conclusion:
The so-called 'typically' monolocular smooth-walled endometriotic cyst with internal echoes was only found in 43% of the cases. However, data from the literature show that one cannot assume even this special entity to represent endometriomas. Regarding all monolocular cysts with homogeneous internal echoes, one has to be aware of a great amount of functional cysts and a non-calculable residual risk of malignancy.