Objectives
Uterine fibroids are common findings in women with pelvic pain and abnormal uterine bleeding. The reference standard test in the pretreatment evaluation of fibroids is contrast‐enhanced magnetic resonance (MR) imaging. This study compared the number, size, location, and enhancement of uterine fibroids identified by contrast‐enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) and MR. The aim of this study was to demonstrate that CEUS performs similarly to MR and could be used as an alternative imaging modality.
Methods
In this prospective observational study, 26 women underwent transabdominal CEUS and MR examinations. Blinded to the original clinical MR interpretations, 2 readers reviewed the MR and CEUS studies for each patient. The number, size, location, and enhancement of each fibroid per patient were reported by MR and CEUS. A Pearson correlation coefficient was calculated for the number of fibroids identified by each modality.
Results
In total, 126 fibroids were imaged: 115 (91.3%) were observed on both examinations; 9 (7.1%) were observed by MR only; and 2 (1.6%) were observed by CEUS only. A high correlation was found between the modalities for the number of fibroids identified per patient (r = 0.97; P < .001). There was also no significant difference between the modalities for each patient in the fibroid number, size, location, or enhancement.
Conclusions
These findings suggest that transabdominal CEUS may represent an alternative to MR in pretreatment evaluation of uterine fibroids and could serve as a test of choice in patients with a contraindication to MR.
We report a series of nine cases of unusual etiologies for vascular duodenal compression that do not meet the diagnostic criteria for superior mesenteric artery (SMA) syndrome and propose that “SMA-like syndrome” be used to classify these vascular duodenal compression cases.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.