Hystero-salpingo scintigraphy for fallopian tubal patency assessment: results from a prospective study

Abstract

Objective

To evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of a bygone method, hystero-salpingo-scintigraphy (HSSG), for tubal patency assessment of infertile women.

Material and methods

Prospective cohort study involving women in the infertility workup at the University of Debrecen, Hungary. Seventy infertile patients were scheduled to either basic dynamic HSSG, post-purge dynamic HSSG, or post-purge dynamic HSSG followed by SPECT/CT for reducing tracer contamination. The primary endpoint was the evaluation of the diagnostic accuracy of HSSG for the three methods.

Results

During the basic dynamic group, the examination yielded a sensitivity of 87.5%, with a specificity of 71.7%, while positive and negative predictive values were 31.8%, and 97.4% respectively. Using post purge dynamic HSSG, it resulted in a sensitivity of 87.5%, a specificity of 88.7%, a positive predictive value of 53.8%, and a negative predictive value of 97.9%. Adding SPECT/CT to post-purge dynamic HSSG increased diagnostic accuracy with 100% sensitivity and 88.7% specificity, while positive and negative predictive values were 57.1% and 100%, respectively.

Conclusion

HSSG is a non-invasive and well-tolerated technique for tubal patency. It could be used initially to predict tubal patency in case of infertility. Its diagnostic accuracy is higher when it is carried out by adding SPECT/CT to the post-purge dynamic method.

Keywords:

• Infertility
• tubal patency
• fallopian tube
• scintigraphy
• SPECT
• radionuclides

Declaration of interest

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.