[Elastography assessment of the cervix during cervical maturation].

BACKGROUND: The issue of cervical tissue imaging is to enable the provision of Obstetricians an objective tool for measuring cervical changes more accurate than the vaginal touch. Hitachi software "Real-time Tissue Elastography" allows an analysis of tissue elasticity, evaluated on a Young's modulus theory. This imagery evaluated for mammary tumors and liver changes elasticity, would objectively show changes in cervical consistency.

AIMS: The authors of the following work have attempted to: - Assess the usefulness of elastography in the uterine cervix examination. - Compare the modifications of the cervical module of elasticity before and during the maturation by prostaglandins indicated for medical reason with those raised in the clinical examination (score of Bishop).

METHODS: It is about a non-interventional feasibility study with regulation of the machine, realized in forward-looking. We included 30 patients scheduled for a cervical maturation by prostaglandins for medical indication. We realized a measure of the cervical module of elasticity during an endo-vaginal ultrasound for measure of the cervix before the pose of prostaglandins, 6 hours then 12 hours after the stake in contact and we compared the measure every time with the score of bishop.

RESULTS: All the patients who presented an index of high softening entered labor within the 3 hours following the examination. Furthermore, the modifications observed on the index of softening were correlated to those of the score of Bishop.

CONCLUSION: The performance of the images of elastography with these regulations allowed a good confrontation of the results during the evaluation of the feasibility of the technique with the score of Bishop during cervical maturation. This promising technique remains a technique of research. Forward-looking studies on wide series of patients are going to be able to estimate the elastography as an additional and objective informer of the cervical maturation.