Our objective was to compare the results of ambulatory hysteroscopy in postmenopausal women with and without uterine bleeding. A retrospective descriptive study was carried out on 236 women who were at least 2 years into the menopause, who were not undergoing hormone treatment and who had had abnormal pelvic ultrasound results. Of these women, 150 were asymptomatic and 86 reported haemorrhage. Diagnostic and operative outpatient hysteroscopy was performed between January 2002 and December 2003. There was no difference between the two groups regarding age of patients, age of menopause and presence of at least one of the risk factors for endometrial carcinoma evaluated, although obesity was more frequent in the symptomatic group. Abnormal ultrasound results for these women corresponded in the majority of cases to intracavitary disease, and the absence of organic endometrial pathology was 9.3% vs 11.3% in each group. The more frequent pathology was benign endometrial polyps (64% in bleeding patients and 84.7% in asymptomatic ones). Endometrial carcinoma was diagnosed in 23.3% of women with metrorrhagia and in 1.3% of asymptomatic women. We diagnosed 2.6% of malignancy inside polyps. Hysteroscopy results were confirmed by histology in 90.3% of cases. See and treat in one session was achieved in 91% of benign endometrial polyps. Ambulatory hysteroscopy has high sensitivity and specificity for intracavitary pathology and high tolerability and safety. See and treat in one session can be achieved in the majority of lesions with indication for excision. These results make us advise our menopausal patients with abnormal uterine bleeding to undergo diagnostic hysteroscopy complemented with biopsy.

Uterine leiomyomas are by far the most common benign tumours of the female genital tract. The true incidence of leiomyomas during pregnancy is, however, unknown. Although leiomyomas usually remain asymptomatic during pregnancy, they may complicate its course. The management of leiomyoma during pregnancy is medical, but, in rare circumstances, surgical intervention and myomectomy may be required. A case of myomectomy in early pregnancy is described.

The aims of this retrospective review were to determine the frequency of malignant endometrial polyps diagnosed with ambulatory hysteroscopy in the Obstetrics/ Gynaecology Department of HDE, Lisbon, between January 2001 and December 2005 and to characterize these cases according to risk factors, sonographic and endoscopic findings tumoral histology, and tumor stage. We found seven cases of malignant endometrial polyps in a total of 1333 polyps initially diagnosed: an incidence rate of 0. 53%. These seven patients had a mean age of 68 years (55-82 years), and all were postmenopausal, with five having one risk factor each for endometrial cancer. Metrorrhagia was present in six of the seven patients (85.7%). Ultrasonography was abnormal in all seven patients, with a mean endometrial thickness of 26 mm (range: 12-44 mm). The hysteroscopy images suggested malignancy in all cases. All except one patient had a single polyp. The polyps had volumes between 1.5 and 3 cm; two were removed completely and five were biopsed. The histological subtype was: mixed endometrioid/serous papillary or clear cell (2), adenocarcinoma with squamous differentiation (2), carcinosarcoma (2), and clear cell carcinoma (1). Malignancy inside polyps is rare, but diagnostic hysteroscopy with visual guided biopsies can identify these cases in the earlier stages. The risk factors are not different from those of other endometrial carcinomas, but the histological subtype seems to point to more aggressive cancers.

Objectives:The aim of this study is to compare transperineal and endovaginal ultrasonography in the evaluation of the endometrium, assess for image quality and for a systematic difference in endometrial thickness measured by the two techniques. Methods: Transperineal and endovaginal ultrasonography evaluation of the endometrial thickness was performed on 58 women, in Dona Estefânia Hospital, between November 2005 and March 2007. Two physicians reviewed the images and rated the relative diagnostic value of the techniques for assessing the endometrial thickness. We identified two groups (G1 -visualized; G2 -not visualized). In G1 data were analyzed to determine if there is a correlation between the two approaches using the Spearman test, with a statistical significance of 5% (p < 0.05). In GI and G2 we concluded about the uterine position. Results: Fifty-eight women (average age 57.51) were divided in two groups (G1 n = 45; G2 n = 13). In G1 the Spearman test result was R = 0.933, which reveals a strong correlation between the two techniques. In this group 97.78% (44/45) of uterine position was anteversus or intermediary. In G2 the uterine positions were: anteversus 53.85% (7/13), intermediary 7.69% (1/13) and retroversus 38.46% (5/13). In the majority the transabdominal approach reveals worse quality images. Conclusions: Both transperineal and endovaginal ultrasonography can provide satisfactory images of the endometrium, but endovaginal images are frequently superior to transperineal images. With this study we can conclude that transperineal approach is correlated with endovaginal images for endometrial thickness evaluation, especially in anteversus and intermediary uterus. It had patient acceptance and tolerance, without the need for vaginal penetration, and could be a method of choice in virginal or in postmenopausal women with genital atrophy. This technique needs further study to validate its potential application.

Oral communication abstractsall surgically treated patients. Variable surgical complications and failures occurred in 11% of cases. Conclusions: High quality sonographic equipment by using TVS, CD and SHG assessment confirmed the feasibility of an ultrasoundbased conservative monitoring of asymptomatic endometrial polyps on atrophic endometrium. OC10.04