SERUM CA-125 VERSUS ULTRASOUND EXAMINATION IN DIFFERENTIATING BETWEEN BENIGN AND MALIGNANT OVARIAN MASSES

Objective: to differentiate between benign and malignant ovarian masses by using serum ca125 versusultrasound examination.methodology: this descriptive study was conducted at department of obstetrics and gyneecology,hayatabad medical complex from 1st january 2010 to 31st december 2010. women fulfilling inclusioncriteria were admitted. they underwent transabdominal gray-scale ultrasound examinations by anexperienced examiner before surgery. pattern recognition was used to classify a mass as benign ormalignant. these women also had blood withdrawn preoperatively for measurement of serum ca-125 withcut off value of < 35 iu as normal. results from both radiological finding and serum ca125 were thencompared with histopathological findings which was used as gold standard.results: pattern recognition by ultrasound correctly classified 69.64% of the tumors as benign ormalignant. serum ca-125 correctly classified at best 74.14% of the masses. combining both parametersthe diagnostic accuracy increased to 86.75% with sensitivity 80.36%, specificity 100%, positive predictivevalue 100% and negative predictive value of 71.05%.conclusion: pattern recognition alone was inferior to serum ca-125. combining both parameters fordifferentiating between benign and malignant ovarian masses further increased the diagnostic accuracy.