Published July 19, 2024
| Version v1
Publication
Influence of epidemiological characteristics (age, parity and other factors) in the assessment of healthy uterine cervical stiffness evaluated through shear wave elastography as a prior step to its use in uterine cervical pathology
Description
Purpose: To evaluate stiffness changes occurring in the healthy uterine-cervix according
to age, parity, phase of the menstrual-cycle and other factors by shear wave elastography
(SWE).
Methods: Evaluations of cervical speed and stiffness measurements were performed in
50 non-pregnant patients without gynaecological pathology using SWE transvaginal
ultrasound. We performed the evaluation in the midsagittal plane of the uterine-cervix with
measurements at 0.5, 1 and 1.5 cm from external cervical os, at both: anterior, posterior
cervical lips.
Results: We evaluated 44 patients by SWE and obtained a total average velocity of 3.48
±1.08 m/s and stiffness of 42.39 ±25.33 kPa. We found differences in speed and stiffness
according to the cervical lip and depth evaluated; thus, we observed a velocity of 2.70 m/s
at 0.5cm of depth in the anterior lip and 3.53 m/s at 1.5 cm of depth in the posterior lip
(p<0.05). We observed differences according to parity, obtaining a wave transmission
speed of 2.67 m/s and 4.41 m/s at the cervical-canal of nulliparous and multiparous
patients, respectively (p 0.002). We observed differences according to patient age (from a
speed of 2.75m/s at the cervical canal in the age group of 20-35 years old to 5.05 m/s in
the age group >50 years old) (p<0.008). We did not observe differences in speed or
stiffness according to the phase of the menstrual-cycle, BMI, smoking-status or the
presence or absence of non HPV infections.
Conclusions: The wave transmission speed and stiffness of the uterine cervix evaluated
by SWE varies according to the cervical lip and depth of the evaluation as well as
according to the parity and age of the patient.
Additional details
Identifiers
- URL
- https://idus.us.es/handle//11441/161558
- URN
- urn:oai:idus.us.es:11441/161558