Elastosonography: a possible new tool for diagnosis of adenomyosis?

Marco Tessarolo, Tessarolo M, M. Tessarolo, Luca Bonino, Bonino L, Marco Camanni, Camanni M, Francesco Deltetto, Deltetto F
European radiology · 2011 · vol. 21(7) , pp. 1546–1552 · doi:10.1007/s00330-011-2064-z · PMID:21267575 · W1969639348
article OA: closed CC0 ⤵ 22 in-corpus citations
Full text JSON View on OpenAlex View on PubMed View at publisher
⚙ AI-generated summary by claude@2026-06+body, 2026-06-13 ⓘ

Elastosonography evaluated uterine tissue elasticity, finding adenomyotic areas softer than surrounding tissue, suggesting its potential as a diagnostic tool.

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

⚙ AI-generated deep summary by claude@2026-06, 2026-06-10 · read from full text ⓘ

The paper evaluates transvaginal ultrasound (TVU) elastosonography for suspected uterine adenomyosis, based on the idea that histopathological differences correspond to different tissue elasticity. Thirty consecutive women underwent standard B-mode analysis plus elastosonography, and adenomyosis was histologically confirmed in 15 cases. The adenomyotic areas appeared softer on elastosonography (red/green) than surrounding tissue (blue), with the borders of the adenomyotic area aligning with the green area borders. The study reports these as preliminary findings and does not address diagnostic accuracy metrics beyond histology confirmation, so its small sample and partial confirmation limit conclusions; This paper is centrally about endometriosis? No—this paper is centrally about adenomyosis — it tests elastosonography as a new non-invasive diagnostic tool for adenomyosis.

Read from the paper's body, not the abstract. Not a substitute for reading the paper. No clinical advice. How this works

Abstract

ObjectivesAdenomyosis is a disorder defined by the presence of ectopic endometrial glands and stroma within the myometrium. Transvaginal ultrasound (TVU) is currently the first-line examination for this condition and the aim of this paper is to relate a pilot experience that was conducted using TVU to evaluate adenomyosis and which started from the assumption that tissues with anatomopathological differences show different elasticity values.MethodsUsing standard B-mode analysis and elastosonography, we evaluated 30 consecutive women with suspected uterine adenomyosis. In 15 cases the diagnosis was confirmed by histology.ResultsThe adenomyotic area presented more softness (red and green) compared with the surrounding uterine tissue (blue); the borders of the adenomyotic area corresponded to the borders of the green area.ConclusionsThese preliminary results suggest that elastosonography could be considered a useful tool in the diagnosis of adenomyosis because it is non-invasive, easy to understand, easy to perform, and has a short learning curve towards becoming skilled at the procedure.
Full text 5,738 characters · extracted from oa-doi-fallback · 6 sections · click to expand

Abstract

Objectives Adenomyosis is a disorder defined by the presence of ectopic endometrial glands and stroma within the myometrium. Transvaginal ultrasound (TVU) is currently the first-line examination for this condition and the aim of this paper is to relate a pilot experience that was conducted using TVU to evaluate adenomyosis and which started from the assumption that tissues with anatomopathological differences show different elasticity values.

Methods

Using standard B-mode analysis and elastosonography, we evaluated 30 consecutive women with suspected uterine adenomyosis. In 15 cases the diagnosis was confirmed by histology .

Results

The adenomyotic area presented more softness (red and green) compared with the surrounding uterine tissue (blue); the borders of the adenomyotic area corresponded to the borders of the green area.

Conclusions

These preliminary results suggest that elastosonography could be considered a useful tool in the diagnosis of adenomyosis because it is non-invasive, easy to understand, easy to perform, and has a short learning curve towards becoming skilled at the procedure. Similar content being viewed by others

References

Kepkep K, Tuncay YA, Göynümer G, Tutal E (2007) Transvaginal sonography in the diagnosis of adenomyosis: which findings are most accurate? Ultrasound Obstet Gynecol 30:341–345 Meredith SM, Sanchez-Ramos L, Kaunitz AM (2009) Diagnostic accuracy of transvaginal sonography for the diagnosis of adenomyosis: systematic review and metaanalysis. Am J Obstet Gynecol 201(107):e1–e6 Andreotti RF, Fleischer AC (2005) The sonographic diagnosis of adenomyosis. Ultrasound Q 21:167–170 Fedele L, Bianchi S, Dorta M, Arcaini L, Zanotti F, Carinelli S (1992) Transvaginal ultrasonography in the diagnosis of diffuse adenomyosis. Fertil Steril 58:94–97 Dueholm M, Lundorf E, Hansen ES, Sørensen JS, Ledertoug S, Olesen F (2001) Magnetic resonance imaging and transvaginal ultrasonography for the diagnosis of adenomyosis. Fertil Steril 76:588–594 Fleury Ede F, Roveda D Jr, Fleury JC, do Carmo Queiroz M, Piato S (2009) Elastography: theory into clinical practice. Breast J 15:564–566 Arnold LL, Ascher SM, Schruefer JJ, Simon JA (1995) The nonsurgical diagnosis of adenomyosis. Obstet Gynecol 86:461–465 Atzori E, Tronci C, Sionis L (1996) Transvaginal ultrasound in the diagnosis of diffuse adenomyosis. Gynecol Obstet Invest 42:39–41 Ascher SM, Arnold LL, Patt RH et al (1994) Adenomyosis: prospective comparison of MR imaging and transvaginal sonography. Radiology 190:803–806 Azziz R (1989) Adenomyosis: current perspectives. Obstet Gynecol Clin North Am 16:221–235 Botsis D, Kassanos D, Antoniou G, Pyrgiotis G, Karakitsos P, Kalogirou D (1998) Adenomyoma and leiomyoma: differential diagnosis with transvaginal sonography. J Clin Ultrasound 26:21–25 Cho S, Nam A, Kim H et al (2008) Clinical effects of the levonorgestrel-releasing intrauterine device in patients with adenomyosis. Am J Obstet Gynecol 198:e1–e7 Atri M, Reinhold C, Mehio AR, Chapman WB, Bret PM (2000) Adenomyosis: US features with histologic correlation in an in-vitro study. Radiology 215:783–790 Reinhold C, Arti M, Mehio A et al (1995) Diffuse uterine adenomyosis: morphologic criteria and diagnostic accuracy of endovaginal sonography. Radiology 197:609–614 Brosens JJ, de Souza NM, Barker FG et al (1995) Endovaginal ultrasonography in the diagnosis of adenomyosis uteri: identifying the predictive characteristics. Br J Obstet Gynaecol 102:471–474 Vanhoutte A, Fellah L, Galant C, d'Hoore W, Berlière M, Leconte I (2008) Contribution of sonoelastography to the characterization of breast lesions. JBR-BTR 91:187–194 Giuseppetti GM, Martegani A, Di Cioccio B, Baldassarre S (2005) Elastosonography in the diagnosis of the nodular breast lesions: preliminary report. Radiol Med 110:69–76 Rago T, Vitti P (2009) Potential value of elastosonography in the diagnosis of malignancy in thyroid nodules. Q J Nucl Med Mol Imaging 53:455–464 Rubaltelli L, Corradin S, Dorigo A, Stabilito M, Tregnaghi A, Borsato S, Stramare R (2009) Differential diagnosis of benign and malignant thyroid nodules at elastosonography. Ultraschall Med 30:175–179 Tranquart F, Bleuzen A, Pierre-Renoult P, Chabrolle C, Sam Giao M, Lecomte P (2008) Elastosonography of thyroid lesions. J Radiol 89:35–39 Miyagawa T, Tsutsumi M, Matsumura T, Kawazoe N, Ishikawa S, Shimokama T, Miyanaga N, Akaza H (2009) Real-time elastography for the diagnosis of prostate cancer: evaluation of elastographic moving images. Jpn J Clin Oncol 39:394–398 Thomas A, Kümmel S, Gemeinhardt O, Fischer T (2007) Real-time sonoelastography of the cervix: tissue elasticity of the normal and abnormal cervix. Acad Radiol 14:193–200 Ami O, Lamazou F, Mabille M, Levaillant JM, Deffieux X, Frydman R, Musset D (2009) Real-time transvaginal elastosonography of uterine fibroids. Ultrasound Obstet Gynecol 34:486–488 Hobson MA, Kiss MZ, Varghese T, Sommer AM, Kliewer MA, Zagzebski JA, Hall TJ, Harter J, Hartenbach EM, Madsen EL (2007) In vitro uterine strain imaging: preliminary results. J Ultrasound Med 26:899–908 Tamai K, Koyama T, Umeoka S, Saga T, Fujii S, Togashi K (2006) Spectrum of MR features in adenomyosis. Best Pract Res Clin Obstet Gynaecol 20:583–602

Acknowledgements

The authors thank Mrs Debra Levine for her linguistic advice. Author information Authors and Affiliations Corresponding author Rights and permissions About this article Cite this article Tessarolo, M., Bonino, L., Camanni, M. et al. Elastosonography: a possible new tool for diagnosis of adenomyosis?. Eur Radiol 21, 1546–1552 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00330-011-2064-z Received: Revised: Accepted: Published: Issue date: DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00330-011-2064-z

Text is read by the "Ask this paper" AI Q&A widget below. Extraction quality varies by source — PMC NXML preserves structure cleanly, OA-HTML may include some navigation residue, and OA-PDF can have broken hyphenation. The publisher copy (via DOI) is the canonical version.

My notes (saved in your browser only)

⚙ Ask this paper AI returns verbatim quotes from the full text · source: oa-doi-fallback ⓘ

Answers must be backed by verbatim quotes from this paper's full text. Hallucinated quotes are dropped automatically; if no verbatim passage answers the question, we say so. How this works

Condition tags

endometriosisadenomyosis

MeSH descriptors

Elasticity Imaging Techniques Endometriosis Adult Diagnosis, Differential Elasticity Imaging Techniques Endometriosis Female Humans Ultrasonography, Doppler

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 (25)

Cited by (22)

Source provenance

europepmc
last seen: 2026-08-01T06:07:04.264727+00:00
openalex
last seen: 2026-06-10T17:14:06.276822+00:00
pubmed
last seen: 2026-05-13T22:16:54.825375+00:00
License: CC0 · commercial use OK