Publication:

Evaluation of simple International ovarian tumor analysis ultra sound rules in differentiating between benign and malignant ovarian tumors and their histopathological correlation

Background IOTA (International ovarian tumor analysis) study is considered one of the largest studies on ultrasound diagnosis of ovarian pathology conducted in literature till date. It was started in 1999 and included nine European countries. It is a standardized technique for preoperative classification of ovarian pathology defined by IOTA group.

Methods A retrospective study was analyzed from a period of January 2016 to December 2017 (2-year period). The records of all the patients operated for benign and malignant ovarian pathology in the gynae department of hospital were retrieved from medical record sections. USG findings were redefined as per IOTA simple rules by sonologist and its histopathological correlation was done using kappa statistical method.

Results In the present study, out of 61 patients IOTA was applicable to 57 patients. The sensitivity where IOTA simple rules were applicable was 92.8% and the specificity was 93%. The accuracy turned out to be 92.9%. If inconclusive results were taken as malignant then sensitivity increased to 94% and specificity decreased to 87%. Good level of agreement was found between sonological and histopathological findings with Kappa statistics application (K = 0.59).

Conclusions The IOTA simple rules can be considered as an important diagnostic modality in differentiation of benign and malignant ovarian tumors, it has an added advantage of abolishing the subjectivity of routine ultrasound. However inconclusive results demand further expertise in the field and need to be taken care of before interpretation of ovarian pathologies.