The Utility of Myometrial and Cervical Ultrasound Shear Wave Elastography in the Diagnosis of Ectopic Pregnancy.
We aimed to assess the potential utility of myometrial and cervical elasticity measurement in the diagnosis of ectopic pregnancy (EP), which could facilitate the diagnosis process. Myometrial and cervical elasticity values were measured in women with EP, women with early intrauterine pregnancy (IP) and non-pregnant women. Transabdominal point shear wave elastography (pSWE) was used for elasticity measurements. A reliability study was performed in 20 patients of the non-pregnant group. Cervical pSWE showed poor reliability and high measurement failure rate; thus, we excluded cervical elasticity assessment from the study. In this study, 32 women with EP, 28 women with early IP and 38 non-pregnant women were enrolled for myometrial elasticity assessment by pSWE. Myometrial elasticity values were statistically significantly lower in EP (8.31 kPa [5.1-27]) and early IP (8.83 kPa [4.5-46.2]) groups than in non-pregnant women (14.85 kPa [5.1-28]) (p = 0.003). However, myometrial pSWE results were not significantly different between EP and early IP groups. In light of this data, quantitative assessment of the uterus elasticity using pSWE does not seem to be an adequate diagnostic method for EP.
['Akbas|Murat|M|', 'Koyuncu|Faik Mumtaz|FM|']
D000328:Adult D002584:Cervix Uteri D054459:Elasticity Imaging Techniques D005260:Female D006801:Humans D009215:Myometrium D011247:Pregnancy D011271:Pregnancy, Ectopic D015203:Reproducibility of Results D016216:Ultrasonography, Prenatal
Elastography Ectopic pregnancy Pregnancy Point shear wave elastography Acoustic radiation force impulse