Purpose: To evaluate the accuracy of the uterine artery pulsatility index (PI) for the diagnosis of pubertal onset in girls.Methods: Cross-sectional study of girls with normal pubertal development. Puberty was diagnosed by the presence of Tanner breast development score ≥2. All girls underwent pelvic ultrasound and Doppler imaging of the uterine arteries. We evaluated the uterine artery PI and uterine, endometrial, and ovarian measurements. We used ROC curves with cutoffs determined by Youden index for data analysis.Results: We included 169 girls aged 5-16 years who underwent 202 pelvic ultrasound examinations. Prepubertal girls had a signi cantly higher mean PI (mean, 6.70; SD, 2.15) than girls in initial puberty (mean, 4.14; SD, 1.55) and in late puberty (mean, 2.81; SD, 1.05) (P<0.001 for all comparisons), which re ects a progressive increase in blood ow to the uterus with the progression of puberty. ROC curve analysis showed that the PI was able to identify the onset of puberty with a mean area under the curve of 0.838 (SD, 0.04) (P<0.001), and the PI cutoff point of 5.05 had a sensitivity of 77%, speci city of 85%, positive predictive value (PPV) of 92%, and accuracy of 79%. The combination of PI <5.05 plus uterine volume >3.75 cm³ had a sensitivity of 73%, speci city of 95%, PPV of 97%, and accuracy of 79% to detect initial puberty.Conclusions: The signi cant reduction in the PI during pubertal development combined with increasing uterine volume can be a valuable, highly speci c, noninvasive tool to con rm the onset of puberty.
Aims: To evaluate the accuracy of dynamic ultrasonography (DUS), as a feasible alternative diagnostic method to identify detrusor overactivity (DO) in patients with neurogenic bladder. Methods: We performed concurrent analysis of 81 pairs of urodynamic study (UDS) and DUS, in 63 patients with myelomeningocele (MMC), from June 2014 to February 2017. The assessment focused on bladder behavior during the filling phase, DO evaluation, DO with leakage, compliance, and maximum cystometric capacity (MCC). Results: Patient age ranged from 3 months to 34 years (median, 84 months); 47.6% were male. Overall, 9.5% of patients had chronic kidney disease, 20.6% had recurrent urinary tract infection, 19.05% had vesicoureteral reflux, and 69.8% had constipation. Anticholinergic therapy was used by 41.3% of patients. DO was observed in 45.67% of patients and DO with leakage in 42.6%. Mean bladder compliance was 10.39 mL/ cmH 2 O and normal MCC was 56.79%. DUS had 91.89% sensitivity in identifying DO, 88.64% specificity, 87.18% positive predictive value, 92.86% negative predictive value, and 90.12% accuracy, with a kappa coefficient of 0.8 (P < 0.001). Conclusion: MMC follow-up is essential because urinary parameters can change during patient growth. The standard examination is invasive and has related complications, making noninvasive evaluation a desirable alternative, like DUS. Our data suggest that DO and MCC can be evaluated using DUS in patients with MMC. UDS should be performed in patients with abnormal findings on ultrasound evaluation or those with worsening of urinary tract function. K E Y W O R D S dynamic ultrasonography, myelomeningocele, pediatric neurogenic bladder, spinal dysraphism
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