Preliminary assessment of cervical remodeling during pregnancy with speckle statistics : comparison between early and late pregnancy

1.1 Preliminary assessment of cervical remodeling during pregnancy with speckle statistics: comparison between early and late pregnancy, Ivan M. Rosado-Mendez, 1 Andrew Santoso, 1 Quinton Guerrero, 1 Lindsey Drehfal, 1 Helen Feltovich 1, 2 and Timothy Hall, 1 1 Medical Physics, University of Wisconsin Madison, Madison, WI and 2 Maternal Fetal Medicine, Intermountain Healthcare, Provo, UT, rosadomendez@wisc.edu Objectives: Before parturition, the collagenous structure of the uterine cervix remodels to increase the organ’s compliance and allow vaginal delivery. We are investigating Quantitative Ultrasound biomarkers to quantify these changes and potentially detect conditions that lead to spontaneous preterm birth. The link between ultrasound speckle and the spatial distribution of scatterers in tissue (collagen fibers in the cervix)[1], motivates the use of parameters describing the statistics of speckle. We present a cross-sectional comparison of speckle statistics parameters in the cervix of women in early and late stages of pregnancy. Methods: In this IRB-approved study, 13 patients in early pregnancy (5-14 wk), and 20 in late pregnancy (37-41 wk) were recruited. Radiofrequency (RF) echo signals from the cervix were acquired trans-vaginally with a Siemens Acuson S2000 Ultrasound system (Siemens Healthcare, Ultrasound Business Unit, Mountain View, CA, USA) using a prototype catheter transducer attached to the clinician’s finger. Parametric images were constructed by sweeping a 2×2 mm 2