Fig 1.
Schematic representation of the experimental set-up.
Fig 2.
Example of a ROI (white circle) of 5 mm diameter positioned in elastographic image following only anatomical criteria on the conventional B-mode image.
Stiffness value estimated inside the ROI: 10.2 kPa ± 0.5 kPa [9.6—11.9] kPa.
Table 1.
Characteristics of the study population.
Fig 3.
Cervical stiffness measured for the control (left) and dexamethasone group (right) in the 7 examination performed over 24 hours.
Fig 4.
Bland-Altman plots demonstrating degree of concordance between pairs of cervical elastography measurements obtained by the same (left) and by two different operators (right).
Mean difference (solid line) and 95% limits of agreement (dashed lines) are shown.
Fig 5.
PGE2 and its metabolites in sheep serum just before the first elastographic exam (sample 1) and at the end of the experiment just before euthanasia (sample 2), assayed via its metabolite PGEM with Cayman’s Prostaglandin E Metabolite EIA Kit (Item No. 514531, Cayman chemical).
Fig 6.
Complete histological evaluation of the cervix.
Mucous plug (m), epithelial cells (e), mucosal chorion (c), submucosa (s).
Fig 7.
Structures identified by histological evaluation in the cervical tissue.
Mucous plug (m), epithelial cells (e), mucosal chorion (c), submucosa (s). Collagen fibres: red arrow; Macrophages: arrowhead; lymphocytes: solid arrow; fibroblasts: empty arrow.
Fig 8.
Measurement of the external diameter of the cervical mucosa (green line).
Fig 9.
(a-c) control and (d-f) treated samples imaged in two photon microscopy, in the mucosal chorion/submucosa region of fixed slices. (a,d) Composite 2PF(grey)/SHG(green) image (scale bar: 100 μm). Separated SHG/2PF are shown in (b,c) and (e,f) inside the mucosal chorion (scale bar: 100 μm).
Fig 10.
Typical SHG zoomed images in the mucosal chorion region of (a) control and (b) treated samples, and in the submucosa region of (c) control and (d) treated sample. Scale bars: 20 μm. SHG ROI images are intentionally contrasted in order to enhance the visibility of the morphological differences between the control and treated samples. Corresponding 2D FT images, thresholded at 80% of their maximal intensity, are shown in (e-h) for (e) control/mucosal chorion (maximum intensity = 971 counts, R = 0.28), (f) treated/mucosal chorion (maximum intensity = 737 counts, R = 0.39), (g) control/submucosa (maximum intensity = 581 counts, R = 0.42), (h) treated/ submucosa (maximum intensity = 412 counts, R = 0.43). Average values and standard deviations (plotted error bars) are given for 5-10 regions, measured from two different animals (* = significant at 5% level; ** = significant at 1% level).