Concordance of tomographic ultrasound and multiplanar ultrasound in detecting levator ani muscle injury in patients with pelvic organ prolapse

AIM: To compare the evaluations of evaluate levator ani muscle injury (LAMI) by tomographic ultrasound imaging (TUI) and multiplanar (MP) ultrasound in patients with pelvic organ prolapse (POP). METHOD: This retrospective analysis studied women who underwent International Continence Society POP quantification examination between October 2015 and June 2016. LAMI was assessed by both TUI and MP ultrasounds. Concordance of these two testing results was analyzed. Their correlations with clinical symptoms were also studied. RESULTS: A total of 135 women were included. All the patients with POP had a minimal LAMI depth ≥ 7 mm. Two examinations, TUI and MP, had satisfactory concordance (k = 0.71, P < 0.01). Depth of LAMI in the coronal plane demonstrated good agreement with TUI scores (r = 0.84; P < 0.01). After controlling for age, BMI, and parity, to have clinically significant POP and POP symptoms, the odds ratios (ORs) for the depth of LAMI in the coronal plane were 1.31 (95% CI 1.19–1.44) and 1.25 (95% CI 1.14–1.36), and for TUI scores were 1.72 (95% CI 1.37–2.17) and 1.63 (95% CI 1.31–2.03). Receiver operating characteristic curve analyses showed a cutoff depth of 7 mm of LAMI yielded a sensitivity of 62% and specificity of 80% for POP symptoms. CONCLUSIONS: TUI and MP had satisfactory concordance in detecting LAMI and correlated with clinical symptoms of POP.