Power Doppler ultrasound: a potentially useful alternative in diagnosing pelvic pathologic conditions.

INTRODUCTION: To evaluate the efficacy of power Doppler sonography in depicting soft-tissue hyperemia in endometriosis and other pelvic inflammatory conditions thirty-one patients with predominantly pelvic inflammatory symptoms were evaluated. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Power Doppler sonography at 5 MHz and a pulse repetition frequency of 800 Hz was used. All the women underwent laparoscopy after 10 days. RESULTS: Soft-tissue hyperemia was seen on power Doppler sonograms in 22 of the symptomatic patients. In these women Doppler demonstrated a diffused "blush" of almost or the entire symptomatic sites. Specificity was 52.4%, sensitivity 47.1% and the positive predictive value was 53.2%. CONCLUSION: Power Doppler sonography showed hyperperfusion in many cases associated with pelvic inflammatory pathology. It is a potentially useful adjunct to standard color Doppler imaging in depiction of vascular flow.