MR Venography in the Detection of Pelvic Venous Congestion

Purpose: To investigate the feasibility of using magnetic resonance venography (MRV) to detect pelvic venous congestion (PVC). Methods: A prospective study of 23 female patients with signs and symptoms of PVC, who underwent duplex sonography, MRV and phlebography (P). Examinations were interpreted in a blinded fashion. Visualization of venous anatomy, presence of venous incompetence and congestion grade were evaluated. Sensitivity and specificity of MRV using P as reference were calculated. Results: MRV agreed with P in 96% (Cohen-K-vatue 0.646) and in 70% (K 0.555) of the cases respectively in the venous anatomy and congestion grade. Sensitivity and specificity of MRV were 88% and 67% for ovarian veins, 100% and 38% for hypogastric veins and 91% and 42% for the pelvic plexus. Conclusions: In this prospective study MRV showed high sensitivity in the evaluation of patients with suspected PVC. Routine use of this diagnostic method requires further studies in larger patient cohorts. (C) 2008 European Society for Vascular Surgery. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.