ReviewJournal of biomechanics2015
The mechanical role of the cervix in pregnancy.
Review in Journal of biomechanics, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 109 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
109 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 243 citations in OpenAlex.
- Evaluation of Maternal Inflammatory Biomarkers in Preterm Prelabor Rupture of Membranes: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania) · 2025Pooled it
- Prior Spontaneous or Induced Abortion Is a Risk Factor for Cervical Dysfunction in Pregnant Women: a Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.Reproductive sciences (Thousand Oaks, Calif.) · 2023Pooled it
- Cervical pessary to prevent preterm birth in asymptomatic high-risk women: a systematic review and meta-analysis.American journal of obstetrics and gynecology · 2020Pooled it
- Longitudinal ultrasonic dimensions and parametric solid models of the gravid uterus and cervix.PloS one · 2021Trial
- The Comparative Study of Cervical Shear Wave Elastography Between Twin and Singleton Pregnancy.International journal of women's health · 2020Trial
- Biomechanical function of the murine cervix with elastic fiber deficiency.Journal of the mechanical behavior of biomedical materials · 2026Article
- Overview of Silk Fibroin Injectable Hydrogels: Advances and Applications in Regenerative Medicine.Advanced healthcare materials · 2026Review
- The Role of Papaverine in the Molecular and Biomechanical Mechanisms of Cervical Ripening: A Narrative Review.International journal of molecular sciences · 2026Review
- A finite element model of pregnancy derived from maternal sonography: effect of uterine and cervical structural properties on cervical mechanical loading.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Cervicovaginal cytokine profiles and their associations with colposcopic findings in adolescent girls and adult women in South Africa: an exploratory cross-sectional study.BMC infectious diseases · 2026Article
- Risk stratification of preterm birth using the uterocervical angle and its rate of change in mid- and late-pregnancy: a single-center retrospective study.Journal of medical ultrasonics (2001) · 2026Article
- A new perspective on predicting latency period in preterm premature rupture of membranes: the role of cervical area measurement.Irish journal of medical science · 2026Article
- Low-Field Magnetic Resonance Imaging of the Late Gestation Cervix and Birth Outcome Correlation: A Prospective Cohort Study.BJOG : an international journal of obstetrics and gynaecology · 2026Article
- Assessing preterm risk via label-free, multiparametric imaging of collagen fiber remodeling in the cervix.Biomedical optics express · 2026Article
- Efficacy of Combined Cervical Pessary and Progesterone in Women at High-Risk of Preterm Birth.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Stabilization of cervical stiffness associated with cervical pessary placement in women at risk for preterm birth.PloS one · 2026Observational
- Microstructure-Informed Hyper-Viscoelastic Model Capturing Soft Tissue Tensile Behavior Across Large Deformations.Journal of the mechanics and physics of solids · 2026Article
- VaginalFrontiers in cellular and infection microbiology · 2026Article
- O-CCR: oriented cervical canal region detection framework toward cervical change assessment in transvaginal ultrasound.BMC medical imaging · 2025Article
- Spectrum of Cervical Insufficiency: Management Strategies from Asymptomatic Shortening to Emergent Membrane Prolapse.Journal of clinical medicine · 2025Review
49 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors at 6 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Appropriate mechanical function of the uterine cervix is critical for maintaining a pregnancy to term so that the fetus can develop fully. At the end of pregnancy, however, the cervix must allow delivery, which requires it to markedly soften, shorten and dilate. There are multiple pathways to spontaneous preterm birth, the leading global cause of death in children less than 5 years old, but all culminate in premature cervical change, because that is the last step in the final common pathway to delivery. The mechanisms underlying premature cervical change in pregnancy are poorly understood, and therefore current clinical protocols to assess preterm birth risk are limited to surrogate markers of mechanical function, such as sonographically measured cervical length. This is what motivates us to study the cervix, for which we propose investigating clinical cervical function in parallel with a quantitative engineering evaluation of its structural function. We aspire to develop a common translational language, as well as generate a rigorous integrated clinical-engineering framework for assessing cervical mechanical function at the cellular to organ level. In this review, we embark on that challenge by describing the current landscape of clinical, biochemical, and engineering concepts associated with the mechanical function of the cervix during pregnancy. Our goal is to use this common platform to inspire novel approaches to delineate normal and abnormal cervical function in pregnancy.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.