Ultrasound assessment in adnexal masses: an update

Adnexal masses are among the most frequent pathologic conditions in gynecologic practice. Ultrasound is widely used for discriminating benign from malignant adnexal masses. Despite the significant amount of papers published about this topic in the last 30 years, research still goes on and new data appear almost every year. The objective of the present paper is to review and update published literature in the last 5 years about adnexal masses. From the studies reported in recent years it can be concluded that the use of pattern recognition by an expert examiner renders the best result in terms of diagnostic performance. Scoring systems or logistic models are not superior to subjective impression of an expert examiner. New technologies such as contrast ultrasound imaging, ovarian HistoScanning and 3D ultrasound are emerging.