Quantitative Elastography for Cervical Stiffness Assessment during Pregnancy

Abstract EN

Aim.

Feasibility and reliability of tissue Doppler imaging-(TDI-) based elastography for cervical quantitative stiffness assessment during all three trimesters of pregnancy were evaluated.

Materials and Methods.

Prospective case-control study including seventy-four patients collected between the 12th and 42nd weeks of gestation.

The tissue strain (TS) was measured by two independent operators as natural strain.

Intra- and interoperator intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) agreements were evaluated.

Results.

TS measurement was always feasible and exhibited a high performance in terms of reliability (intraoperator ICC-agreement = 0.93; interoperator ICC agreement = 0.89 and 0.93 for a single measurement and for the average of two measurements, resp.).

Cervical TS showed also a significant correlation with gestational age, cervical length, and parity.

Conclusions.

TS measurement during pregnancy demonstrated high feasibility and reliability.

Furthermore, TS significantly correlated with gestational age, cervical length, and parity.