Doppler Findings In Ectopic Pregnancy

Placentation, whether in a normal intrauterine pregnancy or an ectopic pregnancy, results in a low impedance flow waveform in the uterus or adnexal mass.

• Dillon et.al. (1).
  Endometrial systolic velocity of >21cm/sec. 84% sensitivity and a 100% specificity in detection of intrauterine pregnancy.
• Alteri et al. (2).
  Peak systolic velocities of intrauterine pregnancies range from: 8-30cm/sec in the absence of an intrauterine sac. 10-60cm/sec in the presence of an intrauterine sac.
• Pellerito et. al. (3).
  Identified extrauterine "placental flow" with a RI £0.6
• Emerson et. al. (4).
  Wide range of waveforms from "peritrophoblastic flow". Sensitivities increased from 54% and 71% to 95% and 85% by the addition of color duplex techniques.
• Taylor et. al. (5).
  There is substantial overlap between between RI of Ectopic Pregnancy (range = 0.18-0.58) and corpus luteum (range = 0.30-0.50).
• Avascular Ectopic.

References

1. Dillon EH, Feyock AL, Taylor KJ. Pseudogestational sacs: Doppler ultrasound differentiation from normal or abnormal intrauterine pregnancies. Radiology 1990;176:359-364.
2. Alteri LA, Cartier MS, Emerson DS et.al. Early intrauterine pregnancy: correlation with peritrophoblastic velocities, sac size and hCG (abstr) Radiology 1990;177(p):193.
3. Pellerito JS, Taylor KJW, Quedens-Case C et.al. Ectopic pregnancy: evaluation with endovaginal color flow imaging. Radiology 1992;183:407-411.
4. Emerson DS, Cartier MS, Altieri LA et.al. Diagnostic efficacy of endovaginal color doppler flow imaging. Radiology 1992;183:413-420.
5. Taylor KJ, Ramos IM, Feyock AL et.al. Ectopic pregnancy: duplex doppler evaluation. Radiology 1989;173:93-97.