Clinical and histopathological characteristics in patients with postmenopausal bleeding

SUMMARY Background: Incidence of endometrial carcinoma in Vojvodina is 15-20/100 000. In 75% cases, endometrial carci- noma is diagnosed in postmenopausal period. In 90 % of patients, the first clinical sign is postmenopausal bleeding. The aim of the study was to investigate clinical and histopathological characteristics in patients with postmenopausal bleeding. Methods: The study included 122 patients with postmenopausal bleeding. All of these patients underwent gynecologi- cal examination and vaginal ultrasound. We obtained materials for histopathological analysis by fractionate explorative curettage. Once we had definitive histopathological findings, we divided patients in two groups A (endometrial carci- noma) and B (benign changes). Results: We confirmed significant statistical differences between examined group A and B, including age (64.49 compared with 58.81 years), postmenopausal period (13.67 instead 9.11 years), and length of uterine corpus (6.41 instead 5.25 cm). Conclusion: Elderly women with longer postmenopausal interval and postmenopausal bleeding had increased risk for endometrial carcinoma. Measurement of endometrial thickness by transvaginal ultrasound appeared to be insufficient parameter for differentiating the benign from the malignant changes of endometrium. Patients with endometrial car- cinoma had significantly longer corpus of uterus comparing to patients with benign changes. Body mass index was not found to be significant risk factor in development of endometrial carcinoma in the examined groups. Obesity was diagnosed in both groups, suggesting that increased body mass index is a risk factor for development of pathological changes in endometrium, which could lead to postmenopausal bleeding.