Sonographic diagnosis of ectopic pregnancy with endovaginal probes : what really has changed ?

To evaluate the impact of endovaginal (EV) sonography in the diagnosis of ectopic pregnancy, a 2 year retrospective study was performed identifying 123 at-risk patients. Of these 123 women, 19 (15.4%) had a surgically proved ectopic pregnancy, only three (15.8%) of which were visualized directly at sonography. A confident diagnosis of an intrauterine pregnancy (IUP) was made at the initial scan in 74%, which contrasts with 58% diagnosed at the first transabdominal (TA) scan in an earlier study from this laboratory, thus confirming an improvement in diagnostic ability with EV transducers