TRANSVAGINAL COLOR DOPPLER IMAGING

Transvaginal color Doppler was used to assess circulation in pelvic vessels in a group of 64 patients including 15 patients with fertility problems, 18 patients with pelvic tumors, 2 cases of suspected ectopic pregnancy, and 29 pregnant patients with fetuses between 6 weeks and 10 weeks, menstrual age. Blood flow was successfully displayed by color Doppler in the external and internal iliac arteries, and the uterine atreries, but flow in ovarian arteries could not be visualized. In the subgroup of patients with pelvic tumors, neovascularization of tumor tissue was documented in 6 out of 10 cases of uterine fibroma and in 2 cases of ovarian cancer. In 6 cases involving benign ovarian pathology, no abnormal blood supply was observed. A comparison between the characteristics of blood flow within uterine fibro‐mas and ovarian malignancies showed lower impedance and higher blood velocity in cases of malignancy. In early pregnancy blood flow in the umbilical artery could be visualized by color Doppler starting from the 6th week and flow in the aorta from the 8th week. Flow in the trophoblasts was observed with an overall success rate of 59% and successfully demonstrated in 1 out of 2 cases of ectopic pregnancy. Copyright © 1990 Wiley Periodicals, Inc., A Wiley Company