Interobserver agreement of multicompartment ultrasound in the assessment of pelvic floor anatomy.

OBJECTIVE: To assess the interobserver agreement of pelvic floor anatomical measurements using multicompartment pelvic floor ultrasound.

METHODS: Females were recruited from the urogynaecology/gynaecology clinics between July and October 2009 and underwent multicompartment pelvic floor ultrasonography (PFUS) using two-dimensional (2D) transperineal ultrasound (TPUS), high-frequency 2D/three-dimensional (3D) endovaginal ultrasound (EVUS) using a biplane probe with linear and transverse arrays and a 360° rotational 3D-EVUS. PFUS measurements were independently analysed by two clinicians.

RESULTS: 158 females had PFUS assessment. Good-to-excellent interobserver agreement was observed for bladder-symphysis distance at rest and valsalva, urethral thickness, urethral length, urethral volume, levator hiatus area and width, anteroposterior diameter and anorectal angle. Lins Correlation was used to calculate the interobserver agreement and Bland-Altman plots were created to demonstrate the agreement between the researchers. There was also a good-to-excellent agreement between the two clinicians for the assessment of pelvic organ prolapse (POP) in the anterior, middle and posterior compartment.

CONCLUSION: Multicompartment PFUS is a reliable tool in the anatomical assessment of pelvic floor measurements and POP.

ADVANCES IN KNOWLEDGE: We found a good-to-excellent agreement between the two assessors in the assessment of pelvic floor measurements for all three pelvic floor compartments and suggest that multicompartment PFUS could be considered as a systematic integrated approach to assess the pelvic floor.