Objective: The objective was to analyze the correlations between the sonographic features of the ovarian masses and the histological diagnosis.
Methods: A retrospective study which involved 404 female subjects who had developed 446 ovarian masses was carried out. Patients who had been submitted to surgery due to uni or bilateral ovarian tumors were included and those presenting with an ectopic pregnancy or pelvic inflammatory process were excluded. Data from the patients' medical charts provided the information needed for a detailed study of the following variables: larger diameter, external borders and texture of the sonographic masses. This collected data was correlated to post surgery pathology diagnoses. The magnitude of the associations between pathology diagnoses and sonographic morphologic findings where estimated by the Odds Ratio with its respective confidence intervals of 95%.
Results: In their majority, masses were benign tumors (88.1%). Malign masses corresponded to 9.4 % of the total and only 2.5% were borderline. Patients' ages ranged from 13 to 63 years (with an average of 39.1). Regarding the irregular and poorly delimited borders of the masses, the odds ratio for malignancy was of 17.8. After analyses of the sonographic texture the odds ratio of complex texture masses proved to be extremely high (38.6). The anechoic masses with thickened septa had an odds ratio of 35.6, while that of the solid masses was of 15.5.
Conclusion: Sonographic analyses of adnexal tumors having more than 7 cm of diameter, irregular and poorly delimited external borders, presenting complex or anechoic textures with thickened septa or solid mass are highly suggestive of malignancy.