Reproductive Unit, Clinic of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Department of Biomedical and Clinical Sciences, ASST Fatebenefratelli Sacco, Hospital "L. Sacco", University of Milan, Milan, Italy.
Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology Unit, Department of Health Sciences, University of Milan, Milan, Italy.
Biomed Res Int. 2017;2017:3205895. doi: 10.1155/2017/3205895. Epub 2017 Dec 11.
Tubal patency is a key element in women who are undergoing assisted reproductive techniques (ART), in order to attempt or exclude intrauterine insemination (IUI) cycles. Amongst the different procedures that can be used, without resorting to laparoscopy that remains the gold standard, hystero-salpingo-contrast sonography (HyCoSy) is an acceptable, time-efficient, and well tolerated option; it can be performed with administration of saline and air simultaneously or alternately (air/saline-HyCoSy), or with some other contrast agents, like SonoVue (sulfur hexafluoride microbubbles). In this paper, we describe two different studies: in the first one, our aim is to compare the efficiency of air/saline-HyCoSy with HyCoSy performed with contrast media (SonoVue), considering hysterosalpingography (HSG) and laparoscopy (LPS) as reference tests; in the second one, we estimate the pregnancy rate of a cohort of infertile women selected to undergo IUI cycles after tubal bilateral patency demonstration with air/saline-HyCoSy, to understand if this technique can be used as an efficient screening procedure in a Reproductive Unit.
输卵管通畅性是接受辅助生殖技术 (ART) 的女性的一个关键因素，目的是尝试或排除宫腔内人工授精 (IUI) 周期。在可以使用的不同程序中，无需进行腹腔镜检查（这仍然是金标准），可以选择子宫输卵管造影超声检查 (HyCoSy)，这是一种可接受的、耗时少且耐受性良好的选择；可以同时或交替使用盐水和空气进行（空气/盐水-HyCoSy），或者使用其他一些造影剂，如 SonoVue（六氟化硫微泡）。在本文中，我们描述了两项不同的研究：第一项研究旨在比较空气/盐水-HyCoSy 与使用造影剂（SonoVue）进行的 HyCoSy 的效率，以子宫输卵管造影术 (HSG) 和腹腔镜检查 (LPS) 作为参考测试；第二项研究旨在估计一组经过双侧输卵管通畅性空气/盐水-HyCoSy 检查后选择接受 IUI 周期的不孕女性的妊娠率，以了解该技术是否可作为生殖单位中的一种有效筛选程序。
