Advances in Adenomyosis Diagnosis UtilizingTransvaginal Ultrasonography-A Short Summary

Adenomyosis is a frequent condition, being present in 20% of general gynae population [1,2] and 30-40% of those attending assisted reproductive technology clinics, having a detrimental effect on cases of in vitro fertilization (IVF) [3,4]. Its main characteristics are presence of heterotopic endometrial glands and stroma within the myometrium, >2.5mm in depth of myometrium or more than one microscopic field at 10times magnification from the endometrium-myometrium junction, along with a variable degree of adjacent myometrial hyperplasia, causing globular and cystic enlargement of the myometrium, with some cysts filled with extravasated, hemolyzed red blood cells and siderophages [5]. Till now the main belief was that this could only get diagnosed with the use of histology only. As this disease gets commonly encountered in women over 40yrs, a belief got created that it was not a real disease. With the use of some imaging techniques like the magnetic resonance imaging and transvaginal ultrasound (TVS), it was found that adenomyosis had a typical appearance, which could be also detected in younger women, in the presence of symptoms or without, where it was found to have a typical appearance [6].