Adenomyosis and Subcutaneous Fatty Tissue Thickness Relationship

Abstract

Purpose: The etiology of adenomyosis is not well understood, but adenomyosis is a common disease. In our study, we aimed to investigate the relationship between adenomyosis and subcutaneous fat tissue thickness by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Materials and Methods: Eighty patients were included in the study and classified into two groups according to their MRI diagnosis. The first group includes patients diagnosed adenomyosis with MRI and the control group consisted of patients who had undergone pelvic MRI for any reason not diagnosed with adenomyosis. The thickness of the subcutaneous fatty tissue was measured at the localization of the first sacral vertebral corpus in both patient groups. In addition, the number of births, cesarean section, and additional pelvic pathologies were compared. Results: Subcutaneous fatty tissue thickness was significantly increased in patients with adenomyosis compared with the control group (P < 0.0005). There was a significant difference in the number of three and more pregnancies in the adenomyosis group (n=23) compared to the control group (n=7). No significant difference was found between the two groups of patients in the history of cesarean section. Conclusions: Adenomyosis is a disease of unknown etiology. Obesity and consequently an increase in thickness in the subcutaneous fatty tissue is one of the important risk factors for the development of adenomyosis.

Keywords

• adenomyosis
• subcutaneous fat thickness
• obesity
• magnetic resonance imaging.