Ultrasonic Evaluation and Classification of Ovarian Tumors

Echo pattern classification for ovarian tumors was devised to evaluate ovarian tumors pre‐operatively, distinguishing malignant ones from the benign tumor. The study covered a period of 8 years, for which 182 cases of ovarian tumor were initially evaluated to devise and test the classification, after which another set of 198 cases diagnosed as ovarian tumor by ultrasound was studied to determine its use in the clinics. The classification consisted of 6 patterns and 2 or 3 sub‐groups for each pattern. The probability of the tumor to be benign was high if it fell in patterns I, II, III, and IV‐A and to be malignant if it fell in patterns IV‐B, V, and VI. The percentage of accuracy of diagnosing malignant ovarian tumor was 89.36% with a low rate (0.65%) of false negative diagnosis. Histologic and echo pattern correlation was high. The results suggest the usefulness of the classification in clinical setting.