Strengths and limitations of diagnostic tools for endometriosis and relevance in diagnostic test accuracy research

Erica Pascoal; Jocelyn M. Wessels; J M Wessels; M. K. Aas‐Eng; Maurício Simões Abrão; G Condous; D. Jurkovic; Mercedes Espada; C. Exacoustós; Simone Ferrero; S. Guerriero; Gernot Hudelist; Mario Malzoni; M Malzoni; S Reid; S Tang; Carla Tomassetti; C Tomassetti; S S Singh; Sukhbir S. Singh; T. Van den Bosch; Mathew Leonardi

doi:10.1002/uog.24892

Strengths and limitations of diagnostic tools for endometriosis and relevance in diagnostic test accuracy research

Erica Pascoal, Jocelyn M. Wessels, J M Wessels, M. K. Aas‐Eng, Maurício Simões Abrão, G Condous, D. Jurkovic, Mercedes Espada, C. Exacoustós, Simone Ferrero, S. Guerriero, Gernot Hudelist, Mario Malzoni, M Malzoni, S Reid, S Tang, Carla Tomassetti, C Tomassetti, S S Singh, Sukhbir S. Singh, T. Van den Bosch, Mathew Leonardi

Ultrasound in obstetrics & gynecology : the official journal of the International Society of Ultrasound in Obstetrics and Gynecology · 2022 · vol. 60(3) , pp. 309–327 · doi:10.1002/uog.24892 · PMID:35229963 · W4214509151

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This review details the strengths and limitations of endometriosis diagnostic tools, concluding that multiple methods, rather than a single gold standard, are appropriate for different diagnostic circumstances.

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Abstract

Endometriosis is a chronic systemic disease that can cause pain, infertility and reduced quality of life. Diagnosing endometriosis remains challenging, which yields diagnostic delays for patients. Research on diagnostic test accuracy in endometriosis can be difficult due to verification bias, as not all patients with endometriosis undergo definitive diagnostic testing. The purpose of this State-of-the-Art Review is to provide a comprehensive update on the strengths and limitations of the diagnostic modalities used in endometriosis and discuss the relevance of diagnostic test accuracy research pertaining to each. We performed a comprehensive literature review of the following methods: clinical assessment including history and physical examination, biomarkers, diagnostic imaging, surgical diagnosis and histopathology. Our review suggests that, although non-invasive diagnostic methods, such as clinical assessment, ultrasound and magnetic resonance imaging, do not yet qualify formally as replacement tests for surgery in diagnosing all subtypes of endometriosis, they are likely to be appropriate for advanced stages of endometriosis. We also demonstrate in our review that all methods have strengths and limitations, leading to our conclusion that there should not be a single gold-standard diagnostic method for endometriosis, but rather, multiple accepted diagnostic methods appropriate for different circumstances. © 2022 International Society of Ultrasound in Obstetrics and Gynecology.

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Condition tags

mesh:D004715endometriosisinfertility

MeSH descriptors

Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Diagnostic Tests, Routine Female Humans Magnetic Resonance Imaging Pregnancy Quality of Life Ultrasonography Ultrasonography

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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 (100)

Cited by (50)

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