ArticleJournal of perinatal medicine2018
A soft cervix, categorized by shear-wave elastography, in women with short or with normal cervical length at 18-24 weeks is associated with a higher prevalence of spontaneous preterm delivery.
Article in Journal of perinatal medicine, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 33 papers, 2 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
33 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled 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
- Diagnostic accuracy of cervical elastography in predicting preterm delivery: A systematic review and meta-analysis.Medicine · 2019Pooled it
- The Comparative Study of Cervical Shear Wave Elastography Between Twin and Singleton Pregnancy.International journal of women's health · 2020Trial
- Cervical Elastography as a Predictive Tool for Preterm Birth: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.Cureus · 2025Review
- Multi-parametric quantitative evaluation of murine cervical remodeling during pregnancy and postpartum.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Cervical elastography at 18 to 23 weeks to predict spontaneous preterm birth in individuals with a history of preterm birth.AJOG global reports · 2025Article
- The Emerging Role of Sonoelastography in Pregnancy: Applications in Assessing Maternal and Fetal Health.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Review
- Performance of the First-Trimester Cervical Consistency Index to Predict Preterm Birth.Journal of clinical medicine · 2024Article
- Shear wave elastography to assess stiffness of the human ovary and other reproductive tissues across the reproductive lifespan in health and disease†.Biology of reproduction · 2024Review
- Evaluating the Efficacy of Cervical Tactile Ultrasound Technique as a Predictive Tool for Spontaneous Preterm Birth.Open journal of obstetrics and gynecology · 2024Article
- The effect of cervical pessary on increasing gestational age at delivery in twin pregnancies with asymptomatic short cervix: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.AJOG global reports · 2024Review
- Article
- How to screen the cervix and reduce the risk of spontaneous preterm birth in asymptomatic women without a prior preterm birth.Obstetrics & gynecology science · 2023Article
- Bioengineering and the cervix: The past, current, and future for addressing preterm birth.Current research in physiology · 2023Review
- Advances in the clinical application of ultrasound elastography in uterine imaging.Insights into imaging · 2022Review
- Midtrimester cervical elastography in pregnant women with a history of loop electrosurgical excision procedure (LEEP).Scientific reports · 2022Article
- Clinical application of cervical shear wave elastography in predicting the risk of preterm delivery in DCDA twin pregnancy.BMC pregnancy and childbirth · 2022Article
- Nomogram Incorporating Multimodal Transvaginal Ultrasound Assessment at 20 to 24 Weeks' Gestation for Predicting Spontaneous Preterm Delivery in Low-Risk Women.International journal of women's health · 2022Article
- Measured Hyperelastic Properties of Cervical Tissue with Shear-Wave Elastography.Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021Article
- Preterm labor is characterized by a high abundance of amniotic fluid prostaglandins in patients with intra-amniotic infection or sterile intra-amniotic inflammation.The journal of maternal-fetal & neonatal medicine : the official journal of the European Association of Perinatal Medicine, the Federation of Asia and Oceania Perinatal Societies, the International Society of Perinatal Obstetricians · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
10 authors.
Funding
Abstract
objectiveTo determine whether a soft cervix identified by shear-wave elastography between 18 and 24 weeks of gestation is associated with increased frequency of spontaneous preterm delivery (sPTD). MATERIALS AND
methodsThis prospective cohort study included 628 consecutive women with a singleton pregnancy. Cervical length (mm) and softness [shear-wave speed: (SWS) meters per second (m/s)] of the internal cervical os were measured at 18-24 weeks of gestation. Frequency of sPTD <37 (sPTD<37) and <34 (sPTD<34) weeks of gestation was compared among women with and without a short (≤25 mm) and/or a soft cervix (SWS <25th percentile).
resultsThere were 31/628 (4.9%) sPTD<37 and 12/628 (1.9%) sPTD<34 deliveries. The combination of a soft and a short cervix increased the risk of sPTD<37 by 18-fold [relative risk (RR) 18.0 (95% confidence interval [CI], 7.7-43.9); P<0.0001] and the risk of sPTD<34 by 120-fold [RR 120.0 (95% CI 12.3-1009.9); P<0.0001] compared to women with normal cervical length. A soft-only cervix increased the risk of sPTD<37 by 4.5-fold [RR 4.5 (95% CI 2.1-9.8); P=0.0002] and of sPTD<34 by 21-fold [RR 21.0 (95% CI 2.6-169.3); P=0.0003] compared to a non-soft cervix.
conclusionsA soft cervix at 18-24 weeks of gestation increases the risk of sPTD <37 and <34 weeks of gestation independently of cervical length.
Indexed as
Identifiers
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.