Prospective external validation of IOTA three‐step strategy for characterizing and classifying adnexal masses and retrospective assessment of alternative two‐step strategy using simple‐rules risk
Authors: Hidalgo J. J. , Ros F. , Aubá M. , Errasti T. , Olartecoechea B. , Ruiz‐Zambrana Á. , Alcázar J. L. 
Published: October 2018

ABSTRACTObjectivesTo perform an external validation of the diagnostic performance of the three‐step strategy proposed by the International Ovarian Tumor Analysis (IOTA) group for classifying adnexal masses as benign or malignant, when ultrasound is performed by non‐expert sonographers in the first two steps. The second objective was to assess the diagnostic performance of an alternative strategy using simple‐rules risk (SRR), instead of simple rules (SR), in the second step.MethodsThis was a prospective observational study conducted at two university hospitals, from September 2015 to August 2017, of consecutive patients diagnosed with an adnexal mass. All women were evaluated by ultrasound using the IOTA three‐step strategy. Non‐expert sonographers performed the first step (use of simple descriptors to classify the masses) and the second step (use of SR if the mass could not be classified in the first step); masses that could not be classified in the first two steps were categorized by an expert sonographer based on their subjective assessment (third step). The reference standard was histological diagnosis in patients who underwent surgery or at least 12 months of follow‐up in cases managed expectantly. The sensitivity, specificity, positive (LR+) and negative (LR–) likelihood ratios and overall accuracy of the IOTA three‐step strategy were estimated. Furthermore, we evaluated retrospectively an alternative two‐step strategy using SRR in the second step to categorize the masses not classifiable with simple descriptors, classifying the lesions as being of low, intermediate or high risk for malignancy. The diagnostic performance of this strategy was estimated by calculating its sensitivity and specificity, assuming surgical intervention for intermediate‐ or high‐risk lesions.ResultsThe study included 283 patients (median age, 48 (range, 18–90) years), of whom 165 (58.3%) were premenopausal and 118 (41.7%) postmenopausal. Two hundred and sixteen (76.3%) women underwent surgery (154 benign and 62 malignant masses) and 67 (23.7%) were managed expectantly with serial ultrasound follow‐up for at least 12 months. All expectantly managed masses were considered benign because no sonographic changes suggestive of malignancy were observed during follow‐up. Simple descriptors could be applied in 126 (44.5%) masses. Of the remaining 157 lesions, 112 (39.6%) could be characterized using SR. Therefore, 238 (84.1%) masses could be classified by non‐expert sonographers in the first two steps. Of the remaining 45 (15.9%) masses, all could be classified by an expert sonographer. Overall sensitivity, specificity, LR+ and LR– of the IOTA three‐step strategy were 95.2%, 97.7%, 42.1 and 0.05, respectively. The diagnostic accuracy was 97.2%. Following the two‐step strategy using SRR in the second step, of the 157 lesions not classified with simple descriptors, 42, 38 and 77 presented low, intermediate or high risk for malignancy, respectively. Based on this method, 210 women would have undergone surgical treatment. The sensitivity and specificity of this two‐step strategy were 98.4% and 63.8%, respectively.ConclusionsThe IOTA three‐step strategy shows high accuracy for discriminating between benign and malignant adnexal lesions when used by non‐expert sonographers. An alternative strategy using the SRR calculator in the second step might improve on this diagnostic performance by decreasing the number of surgical interventions and increasing sensitivity. Copyright © 2018 ISUOG. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.