Hysterosalpingographic Appearances of Female Genital Tract Tuberculosis: Part II: Uterus

Abstract

Female genital tuberculosis remains as a major cause of tubal obstruction leading to infertility, especially in developing countries. The global prevalence of genital tuberculosis has increased during the past two decades due to increasing acquired immunodeficiency syndrome. Genital tuberculosis (TB) is commonly asymptomatic and it is diagnosed during infertility investigations. Despite of recent advances in imaging tools such as computed tomography (CT) scan, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and ultrasongraphy, hysterosalpinography has been considered as the standard screening test for evaluation of tubal infertility and as a valuable tool for diagnosis of female genital tuberculosis. Tuberculosis gives rise to various appearances on hysterosalpingography (HSG) from non-specific changes to specific findings. The present pictorial review illustrates and describes specific and non-specific radiographic features of female genital tuberculosis in two parts. Part I presents specific findings of tuberculosis related to tubes such as "beaded tube", "golf club tube", "pipestem tube", "cobble stone tube" and the "leopard skin tube". Part II will describe adverse effects of tuberculosis on structure of endometrium and radiological specific findings, such as "T-shaped" tuberculosis uterus, "pseudo-unicornuate "uterus, "collar-stud abscess" and "dwarfed" uterus with lymphatic intravasation and occluded tubes which have not been encountered in the majority of non-tuberculosis cases.

Keywords

• female genital tuberculosis
• hysterosalpingography
• endometrium