Reproducibility of endometrial vascular patterns in endometrial disease as assessed by transvaginal power Doppler sonography in women with postmenopausal bleeding

OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this study was to assess the intraobserver and interobserver agreement for identifying different endometrial vascular patterns using power Doppler sonography in women with postmenopausal bleeding and a thickened endometrium.

METHODS
Digitally stored sonographic images from a random sample of 65 patients with postmenopausal bleeding and a thick endometrium (>5 mm) on B-mode sonography and evaluated by transvaginal power Doppler sonography for assessment of endometrial blood flow mapping were evaluated by 5 different examiners with different levels of expertise in Doppler sonography. Intraobserver and interobserver agreement according to the level of experience were assessed by calculating the kappa index.

RESULTS
Intraobserver agreement was good or very good for all experienced examiners (kappa = 0.78-0.96) and moderate (kappa = 0.52) for the inexperienced examiner. Interobserver agreement was moderate among all experienced examiners (kappa = 0.45-0.80). The inexperienced examiner showed fair or moderate interobserver agreement (kappa = 0.32-0.45).

CONCLUSIONS
Our results indicate that endometrial blood flow mapping using transvaginal power Doppler sonography is acceptably reproducible. More experience was associated with better intraobserver and interobserver agreement.

CITATION  J Ultrasound Med. 2006 Feb;25(2):159-63