Variation in Cervical Length over Time during a Single Transvaginal Ultrasound Examination.

OBJECTIVE:  To quantify the degree of change in cervical length (CL) over a 3-minute transvaginal ultrasound.

STUDY DESIGN:  We conducted a prospective observational study of nulliparous patients who underwent routine transvaginal CL screening at the time of their second-trimester ultrasound. We recorded CL at four time points (0, 1, 2, 3 minutes) and compared these values to determine the minute-to-minute change within a single patient.

RESULTS:  A total of 771 patients were included. The mean gestational age was 20.8 weeks (±0.84). We used a linear mixed effect model to assess if each minute during the ultrasound is associated with a change in CL. The intraclass correlation coefficient between minute 0 to minute 3 was 0.82 (95% confidence interval: 0.80, 0.84). This indicates that there is a relatively high within-patient correlation in CL during their ultrasound. Additionally, we stratified patients based on their starting CL; the intraclass correlation coefficient remained high for all groups. We additionally compared CL at each minute. Although there is a statistically significant difference between several time points, the actual difference is small and not clinically meaningful.

CONCLUSION:  The variation in CL over a 3-minute transvaginal ultrasound examination is not clinically significant. It may be reasonable to conduct this examination over a shorter period.