Transvaginal Ultrasound Vibro-elastography for Measuring Uterine Viscoelasticity: A Phantom Study

Xiaoming Zhang, Boran Zhou, VanBuren WM, Wendaline M. VanBuren, Tatnai L. Burnett, Knudsen JM, John M. Knudsen
Ultrasound in medicine & biology · 2018 · vol. 45(2) , pp. 617–622 · doi:10.1016/j.ultrasmedbio.2018.10.009 · PMID:30467032 · W2901751166
Other OA: closed CC0 ⤵ 3 in-corpus citations
View on OpenAlex View on PubMed View at publisher
⚙ AI-generated summary by gemini-2.5-flash-lite, 2026-06-09 ⓘ

This phantom study introduces transvaginal ultrasound vibro-elastography as a method to measure uterine viscoelasticity, demonstrating its potential for non-invasive tissue characterization.

One-sentence paraphrase of the abstract; not a substitute for reading it. No clinical advice. How this works

Abstract

The purpose of this research was to determine the feasibility of a transvaginal ultrasound vibro-elastography (TUVE) technique for generating and measuring shear wave propagation in the uterus. In TUVE, a 0.1-s harmonic vibration at a low frequency is generated on the abdomen of a subject via a handheld vibrator. A transvaginal ultrasound probe is used to measure the resulting shear wave propagation in the uterus. TUVE was evaluated on a female ultrasound phantom. The shear wave speeds in the region of interest of the uterus of the female ultrasound phantom were measured in the frequency range of 100-300 Hz. The viscoelasticity was analyzed based on the wave speed dispersion with frequency. The measurement of shear wave speed suggests that the uterus of this female ultrasound phantom is much stiffer than the human uterus. This research illustrates the feasibility of TUVE for generating and measuring shear wave propagation in the uterus of a female ultrasound phantom. We will further evaluate TUVE in patients, both normal controls and those with uterine diseases such as adenomyosis.

My notes (saved in your browser only)

MeSH descriptors

Elasticity Imaging Techniques Phantoms, Imaging Phantoms, Imaging Uterus Elasticity Imaging Techniques Elasticity Imaging Techniques Feasibility Studies Feasibility Studies Female Female Humans Humans Uterus Uterus Viscosity Viscosity

Citation neighborhood (2-hop)

Papers in the corpus that this work cites (lower rings, blue) and that cite this one (upper rings, green). Dot size scales with the paper's in-corpus citation count — bigger dot = more influential within the endo/adeno field. Click a dot to open that paper. Outer rings show 2-hop neighbours — papers reached through the immediate citers/citees. [ collapse to 1-hop ]

References (33)

Cited by (3)

Source provenance

europepmc
last seen: 2026-10-11T09:27:45.537177+00:00
openalex
last seen: 2026-06-04T00:00:01.174412+00:00
pubmed
last seen: 2026-10-08T21:23:25.915063+00:00
unpaywall
last seen: 2026-10-11T06:28:45.473802+00:00
License: CC0 · commercial use OK