Quantitative cervical elastography during pregnancy: influence of setting features on strain calculation.
AIM
To evaluate the influence on feasibility and reliability of quantitative tissue Doppler imaging (TDI)-based cervical elastography of the cycle phase and of the derivative pitch (DP) selected during tissue strain (TS) calculation across all three trimesters of pregnancy.


MATERIALS AND METHODS
The pilot study included 17 patients collected between the 12th and the 42nd week of gestation. The TS was measured by a single operator by quantitative elastography. The influence of DP values (5, 10, 15, and 20 mm) and phase (compression versus relaxation) was tested after a cycle of freehand compression and relaxation of the cervix through the vaginal probe. Feasibility and intra-operator intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) agreement for strain measurement were also evaluated for every setting used.


RESULTS
TS values were inversely correlated with DP and were slightly higher if measured during a compression phase. TDI-based cervical elastography was feasible in all cases. Reliability for the process of strain calculation of different raw datasets was very good (ICC agreement ranging between 0.79 and 0.87), while excellent considering the same raw dataset (ICC agreement ranging between 0.93 and 0.95).


CONCLUSIONS
The DP and cycle phase influenced the strain values calculated. Nonetheless, TDI-based cervical elastography was feasible and reliable for all the settings considered.
['Fruscalzo|Arrigo|A|', 'Londero|Ambrogio P|AP|', 'Schmitz|Ralf|R|']
D002584:Cervix Uteri D054459:Elasticity Imaging Techniques D005240:Feasibility Studies D005260:Female D006801:Humans D010865:Pilot Projects D011247:Pregnancy D015203:Reproducibility of Results D016216:Ultrasonography, Prenatal
Cervical elastography Pregnancy Derivative pitch Cervix uteri Reproducibility of results Ultrasonography