A study on the diagnostic abilities of ultrasound scans in assessing uterine fibroids against magnetic resonance imaging findings in the same population

Background: This study was designed to evaluate the matching percentage among findings of the ultrasound scans (USS) to the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in women with fibroids.

Materials and Methods: This descriptive, retrospective study was conducted from January 2016 to December 2018. This study includes 205 female patients referred from the Gynaecological Department to the Radiological Department in the Bahrain Defense Force Hospital for MRI and USS for fibroid evaluation. The data collected included their age, parity, and nationality. The StatsDirect software was used to analyze the fibroids according to the site, size, type, and number. 

Results: The findings of USS matched the MRI in the posterior fibroid sites in 52.5% of cases, followed by anterior (38.1%) and fundal (21.8%). For fibroid size, USS matched MRI findings in 83.3% for fibroids between >5 to ≤10 cm, 78.3% for fibroids between >2 to ≤5 cm, and 36.8% for fibroids sized ≤2 cm. Fibroids more than 10 cm in size were in agreement for 33.33% of fibroids. Submucosal fibroids matched in just 29.4% of cases, but for the subserosal fibroids, it was 44.8%. The matching score for more than four fibroids was 61.8%, followed by single fibroids (54.8%) and two fibroids (34.8%).

Conclusions: Results of USS and MRI were reasonably correlated in terms of fibroid location and size. USS diagnosis of posterior wall and fibroids of size less than 2 cm highly matched MRI diagnosis.