Table 2.
Overview of the studies on USE for endometrium diseases
| Year | Authors | Patient numbers and type of lesions | Type of elastography | Type of study | Diagnostic parameters | Diagnostic performance or research results |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Endometrium tumors | ||||||
| 2022 | Vora et al. [45] | AEH = 11, EC = 29, Submucosal UF = 13, endometrial polyp = 14, Focal AM = 7 | SWE | Prospective control study | E, E/M ratio | The elasticity of five pathologies was significant difference (p < 0.001). E mean of endometrial polyp was lowest (p < 0.01), and no significant difference was noted in E mean of EC and AEH (p = 0.19) |
| 2021 | Ma et al. [44] | benign lesions = 85 and EC including AEH = 37 | SWE | Prospective case–control study | E max, E mean | E max and E mean were identified as independent risk factors for EC and AEH |
| 2021 | Du et al. [43] | Endometrial polyps = 45, AEH = 29 and EC = 66 | SWE | Prospective diagnostic study | E mean, E max, and E min | E max has the highest diagnostic value with the truncation values of 52.45 kPa to distinguish between normal endometrium and EC |
| 2016 | Gultekin et al. [41] | AEH = 22, endometrial polyps = 20, and NU = 64 | SE | Prospective control study | B/A ratio | AEH and endometrial polyps had significantly lower B/A ratios than NU (p < 0.01); however, there is no significant difference between them (p > 0.05) |
| 2016 | Czuczwar et al. [42] | endometrial polyps = 29 and submucosal fibroids = 18 | SE | Prospective diagnostic study | Elastographic color map | The accuracy for SE in distinguishing endometrial polyps and submucosal fibroids was 89.4% and had the highest proportion of correct findings(p < 0.001) |
| Infertility | ||||||
| 2021 | Kabukçu et al. [62] | 197 IUI cycles (148 infertility women) | SE | Prospective diagnostic study | SR (endometrium/parametrial tissue) | The SR was not different between pregnant and non-pregnant groups (p = 0.651). SR was not predictive for pregnancy |
| 2021 | Shui et al. [63] | 117 of infertility and 35 of pregnancy | SWE | Prospective diagnostic study | SR (endometrial/subendometrial areas) | The AUC up to 0.949 for predicting pregnancy by using age and ultrasonographic factors including uterine peristalsis, uterine spiral artery, and SR. The sensitivity was 0.83, and specificity was 0.96 |
| 2017 | Swierkowski-Blanchard et al. [61] | 100 women for IUI | SE | Prospective diagnostic study | SR | The SR was significantly higher (2.4 ± 1.3 vs. 1.5 ± 0.7, p < 0.001) in future pregnant women |
USE ultrasound elastography, EC endometrial carcinoma, AEH atypical endometrial hyperplasia, UF uterine fibroids, E/M ratio the ratio of mean elasticity of the endometrial lesion to myometrial elasticity, SE strain elastography, SWE shear wave elastography, SR strain ratio, E Young’s modulus, E max Young’s modulus maximum, E mean Young’s modulus mean, B/A ratio the ratio of mean elasticity of the endometrium to adjacent myometrium, AUC area under the curve, IUI intrauterine insemination. References were presented in Supplementary text