Sonographic Features of Uterine Arteriovenous Malformation: A Case Series

Abstract

Uterine arteriovenous malformation (AVM) is very rare but potentially life-threatening. Early and accurate diagnosis is the cornerstone of its management. The objective of this study is to encourage sonographers to become familiar with a variety of grayscale sonographic features, facilitating rapid recognition of the patterns and prompting them to apply color flow Doppler for a diagnosis of uterine AVM and possible further investigations or interventions. We present six cases of uterine AVM presenting with abnormal uterine bleeding at varying degrees of severity, from abnormal menstruation to life-threatening bleeding following curettage. All initially provided some clues of uterine AVM upon grayscale ultrasound, leading to the application of color Doppler flow to support a diagnosis, with confirmation using abdominal computer tomography angiography (CTA) in most cases, resulting in definitive treatment using uterine artery embolization or other interventions. Most importantly, this study provides various sonographic features of uterine AVM, such as appearances of small tubular structures, spongy patterns, a conceptive-product-like appearance, and spaghetti-like patterns. Hopefully, familiarity with these sonographic features can facilitate practitioners to make an early diagnosis, leading to proper further investigation and intervention, and to prevent serious complications from potentially being caused by this subtle but very serious disorder.

Keywords

• arteriovenous malformation (AVM)
• computed tomography angiography (CTA)
• ultrasound
• uterine artery embolization (UAE)
• uterus