A longitudinal study investigating cervical changes during labor using a wireless ultrasound device

Abstract

Purpose: Cervical assessment during digital vaginal examination (DVE) includes assessing cervical dilatation, effacement, position and consistency. Only cervical dilatation during labor has been previously researched. We investigated cervical changes, including cervical dilatation and effacement, using a wireless ultrasound (US) device.

Materials and methods: This was a longitudinal study investigating cervical changes during labor using a wireless US device. Twenty-five women in labor participated in a serial comparison of cervical dilatation, length and thickness measured during intrapartum transperineal sonography using a wireless mobile US device (SONON) with measurements of cervical dilatation and effacement obtained during serial DVEs.

Results: Intrapartum sonography showed strong correlation with DVE in assessing cervical changes during labor including the measurement of cervical dilatation and thickness (p < .001). The failure rate of cervical length image collection was high; therefore, we could not determine the correlation between cervical length and effacement.

Conclusions: We developed a new technique for evaluating effacement with cervical thickness. Cervical dilation and thickness using a transperineal intrapartum US demonstrated significant correlation with DVE findings. The use of a wireless US device is convenient and may be advantageous in the labor ward; however, further research is needed to define the role of this wireless device.

Keywords:

• Intrapartum sonography
• wireless ultrasound
• cervix
• transperineal
• SONON

Disclosure statement

The authors report no conflicts of interest.

Additional information

Funding

This work was partly supported by the Gachon University Gil Medical Center under Grant number 2015-02; and Next-Generation Medical Device Development Program for Newly-Created Market of the National Research Foundation (NRF) funded by the Korean Government, MSIP under Grant number 2015M3D5A1065907.