Enhanced Ultrasonographic Techniques

Enhanced ultrasonographic techniques are based on the distention of the vagina and/or rectosigmoid with saline solution and/or ultrasonographic during transvaginal ultrasonography. The acoustic windows in the vagina, rectum or both of them facilitate the identification of deep endometriotic nodules and, in particular, of rectosigmoid endometriosis. The enhanced ultrasonographic techniques include rectal water-contrast transvaginal ultrasonography (RWC-TVS), sonovaginography (SVG), and tenderness-guided transvaginal ultrasonography. Several studies showed that RWC-TVS and SVG have a good performance in the diagnosis of rectosigmoid endometriosis that is similar to that of other imaging techniques (such as magnetic resonance imaging, double-contrast barium enema, multidetector computerized tomography enema, and computed tomographic colonography). RWC-TVS allows to estimate the depth of infiltration of endometriosis in the intestinal wall (particularly, the infiltration of the submucosa) and the largest diameter of the intestinal nodules. Up to now, no study compared the performance of different enhanced techniques in the diagnosis of rectosigmoid endometriosis. Access this chapter Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout Purchases are for personal use only Similar content being viewed by others

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Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-50446-5_6 Download citation DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-50446-5_6 Published: Publisher Name: Springer, Cham Print ISBN: 978-3-030-50445-8 Online ISBN: 978-3-030-50446-5 eBook Packages: MedicineMedicine (R0)