THE ROLE OF MULTIDE¬TECTOR CT VIRTUAL HYSTEROSALPINGOGRAPHY IN THE EVALUATION OF FEMALE INFERTILITY

Abstract

With the rapid growth in the infertility services, there is a demand for parallel growth in the female infertility imaging. Although ultrasound, hysterosonography and magnetic resonance imaging are used to assess the female reproductive tract, yet the X-ray hysterosalpingography is still the main and first examination used to evaluate the infertile female with the advantage of assessing the fallopian tube in addition to evaluate the uterus. The rapid growth in the multi-detector computed tomography technology permits volumetric data acquisition which enabled isotropic imaging quality with high spatial, temporal and contrast resolution, resulting in marked improvement in the quality of two-dimensional, three-dimensional reconstructions and the virtual endoluminal evaluation of smaller structures. Virtual hysterosalpingography is a new, less invasive modality that combines the technique of conventional X-ray hysterosalpingography with the advanced technology of multi-detector CT, resulting in a significant improvement in the visualization and assessment of fallopian tubes and allowing a more precise characterization of elevated lesions of dif¬ferent sizes being competitive with hysteroscopy, in addition to its ability to evaluate extra uterine pelvic pathology as ovarian cyst and mass.