Assessment of tubal patency by transvaginal sonographic hydrotubation with color Doppler flow.

OBJECTIVE

To assess the value of transvaginal sonographic hydrotubation with color Doppler flow (TSH) as a test of tubal patency.

METHODS

Thirty-nine women undergoing infertility investigation at Chulalongkorn Hospital participated in this prospective, blind comparative study. Before diagnostic laparoscopy (DL) with chromopertubation, TSH was performed using the SSD 680, 5 MHz vaginal ultrasound probe and 20-50 ml of saline was injected into the uterine cavity.

RESULTS

Nine cases could not be evaluated properly. Of the 30 cases, there were complete agreements between TSH and DL in 24 (80%), partial agreement in 5 (16.67%) and non-agreement in 1 (3.33%). TSH had sensitivity 100%; specificity 84.62%, positive predictive value 50%, negative predictive value 100%, false positive rate 15.38%, but no false negative rate.

CONCLUSION

TSH is a simple diagnostic procedure for screening of tubal patency. However, other confirmatory test is needed if tubal occlusion is suspected.