Evaluation of the routine use of pelvic MRI in women presenting with symptomatic uterine fibroids: When is pelvic MRI useful?

Kim‐Nhien Vu, Fast AM, Angela M. Fast, Shaffer RK, Robyn K. Shaffer, Jarrett Rosenberg, Rosenberg J, Susan Dababou, Cristina Marrocchio, Vasanawala SS, Shreyas Vasanawala, Shreyas S Vasanawala, Deirdre A Lum, Lum DA, Deirdre Lum, Bertha Chen, Chen B, David M. Hovsepian, Hovsepian DM, Pejman Ghanouni, Ghanouni P
Journal of magnetic resonance imaging : JMRI · 2019 · vol. 49(7) , pp. e271–e281 · doi:10.1002/jmri.26620 · PMID:30614145 · W2909860917
article OA: closed CC0 ⤵ 1 in-corpus citation
View on OpenAlex View on PubMed View at publisher
⚙ AI-generated summary by gemini-2.5-flash-lite, 2026-06-13 ⓘ

Pelvic MRI revealed additional findings like adenomyosis or endometriosis in 44% of women with symptomatic uterine fibroids diagnosed by ultrasound, particularly benefiting parous women with pelvic pain or poor quality of life.

One-sentence paraphrase of the abstract; not a substitute for reading it. No clinical advice. How this works

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Pelvic ultrasound (US) diagnosis of uterine fibroids may overlook coexisting gynecological conditions that contribute to women's symptoms. PURPOSE: To determine the added value of pelvic MRI for women diagnosed with symptomatic fibroids by US, and to identify clinical factors associated with additional MRI findings. STUDY TYPE: Retrospective observational study. POPULATION: In all, 367 consecutive women with fibroids diagnosed by US and referred to our multidisciplinary fibroid center between 2013-2017. FIELD STRENGTH/SEQUENCE: -weighted imaging. ASSESSMENT: Demographics, symptoms, uterine fibroid symptom severity scores, and health-related quality of life scores, as well as imaging findings were evaluated. STATISTICAL TESTS: Patients were separated into two subgroups according to whether MRI provided additional findings to the initial US. Univariate and multivariate regression analyses were performed. RESULTS: Pelvic MRI provided additional information in 162 patients (44%; 95% confidence interval [CI] 39-49%). The most common significant findings were adenomyosis (22%), endometriosis (17%), and partially endocavitary fibroids (15%). Women with pelvic pain, health-related quality of life scores less than 30 out of 100, or multiple fibroids visualized on US had greater odds of additional MRI findings (odds ratio [OR] 1.68, 2.26, 1.63; P = 0.02, 0.004, 0.03, respectively), while nulliparous women had reduced odds (OR 0.55, P = 0.01). Patients with additional MRI findings were treated less often with uterine fibroid embolization (14% vs. 36%, P < 0.001) or MR-guided focused US (1% vs. 5%, P = 0.04), and more often with medical management (17% vs. 8%, P = 0.01). DATA CONCLUSION: Pelvic MRI revealed additional findings in more than 40% of women presenting with symptoms initially ascribed to fibroids by US. Further evaluation using MRI is particularly useful for parous women with pelvic pain, poor quality of life scores, and/or multiple fibroids. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: 4 Technical Efficacy: Stage 3 J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2019.

My notes (saved in your browser only)

Condition tags

endometriosisadenomyosis

MeSH descriptors

Leiomyoma Magnetic Resonance Imaging Adenomyosis Adenomyosis Adult Endometriosis Endometriosis Female Humans Leiomyoma Middle Aged Multivariate Analysis Quality of Life Retrospective Studies Ultrasonography

Citation neighborhood

Papers in the corpus that this work cites (lower rings, blue) and that cite this one (upper rings, green). Dot size scales with the paper's in-corpus citation count — bigger dot = more influential within the endo/adeno field. Click a dot to open that paper. [ expand to 2 hops ] — adds papers reached through this work's immediate citers/citees. Heavier; up to 60 extra dots.

References (41)

Cited by (1)

Source provenance

europepmc
last seen: 2026-09-27T09:11:36.575535+00:00
openalex
last seen: 2026-06-04T00:00:01.174412+00:00
pubmed
last seen: 2026-05-13T22:23:01.605684+00:00
License: CC0 · commercial use OK