The Association between Gastrointestinal Symptoms and Transvaginal Ultrasound Findings in Women Referred for Endometriosis Evaluation: A Prospective Pilot Study

Lee Cohen Ben-Meir, David Soriano, Michal Zajicek, Vered Yulzari, Jerome Bouaziz, Marc Beer-Gabel, Vered H. Eisenberg*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

11 Scopus citations

Abstract

Purpose  To evaluate the relationship between gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms and transvaginal ultrasound (TVUS) findings suggestive of endometriosis. Materials and Methods  A prospective design. Women referred for a diagnostic ultrasound due to suspicion of endometriosis completed a Rome III and Pelvic Floor Distress Inventory (PFDI-20) questionnaire for clinical, GI symptoms, before undergoing TVUS. Endometriosis was diagnosed in the presence of endometriomas and/or deeply infiltrative endometriotic (DIE) lesions. Association between lesion sites and GI symptoms was evaluated by univariate and multivariate analysis. Results  The study included 241 women who presented with: dysmenorrhea (89.6 %), dyspareunia (76.3 %), chronic pelvic pain (77.2 %), dyschezia (66 %), hematochezia (15.4 %), subfertility (24.5 %). GI symptoms were present in 25.3-76.8 % and 5.4-55.6 % of Rome III and PFDI-20 questionnaire responses, respectively. TVUS findings were endometriomas (23.2 %), peritoneal adhesions (46.5 %), uterosacral ligament (26.7 %), retrocervical (11.2 %), rectosigmoid (11.2 %), intestinal (4.6 %), and bladder (0.8 %) involvement, and pouch of Douglas (POD) obliteration (15.4 %). There was a high prevalence of peritoneal adhesions, uterosacral ligament involvement, and rectosigmoid and intestinal nodules on TVUS in women with GI symptoms, up to Chi 2 = 9.639 (p = 0.013) on univariate and Chi2 = 8.102 (p = 0.005) on multivariate analysis. Conclusion  We observed an almost 10-fold increase in DIE lesions in women with GI symptoms. We suggest that the presence of GI symptoms should prompt a referral for endometriosis evaluation and performance of a dedicated TVUS before invasive gastrointestinal procedures.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)E81-E89
JournalUltraschall in der Medizin
Volume43
Issue number5
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Oct 2022

Keywords

  • ROME 3
  • endometriosis
  • gastrointestinal symptoms
  • noninvasive imaging
  • transvaginal ultrasound

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