Sonographic patterns in trophoblastic diseases.

A range of sonographic patterns in patients with hydatidiform moles can be appreciated with gray scale ultrasonography, which more readily reveals areas of internal hemorrhagic degeneration and fetal growth within a molar mass. Sonography may be used to evaluate patients suspected of having recurrent or invasive trophoblastic disease; a focus of invasive trophoblastic tumor can be identified as a cluster of high-amplitude echoes within the myometrium, which is frequently associated with echo-free areas of hemorrhage. The enlargement or regression of theca lutein cysts associated with these disease processes can also be monitored.