Endocrine Abstracts

Objective: The aim of our study is to determine clinical factors and sonographic findings associated with endometrial hyperplasia or cancer (EH+) in pre- and perimenopausal women.

Study design: A total of 14 340 transvaginal ultrasonography examinations of 9 888 healthy pre- and perimenopausal women were included in this retrospective study. One hundred sixty-two subjects underwent endometrial biopsy based on abnormal uterine bleeding (AUB), sonographic endometrial abnormalities (thickened endometrium, endometrial mass, or endometrial stripe abnormality), or both. The clinical factors and sonographic endometrial abnormalities were evaluated with regard to EH+.

Results: Histologically verified EH+ was found in fourteen subjects (8.6%); ten cases of endometrial hyperplasia without atypia (EH), three cases of endometrial hyperplasia with atypia (AEH), and one case of endometrial cancer. Neither clinical factors nor AUB were associated with EH+ (P=0.32) or AEH+ (P=0.72). Of sonographic findings, endometrial stripe abnormality was significantly associated with EH+ (P=0.003) and marginally associated with AEH+ (P=0.05), but a thickened endometrium was not associated with EH+ (P=0.43).

Conclusion: Endometrial stripe abnormality is a significant factor to predict EH+ in healthy pre- and perimenopausal women with and without AUB. However, simple measurement of endometrial thickness has a limited role in this capacity.