MR imaging of the uterus and cervix in healthy women: Determination of normal values

E Hauth, Elke A M Hauth, Horst J Jaeger, H. Libera, Hanna Libera, Silke Lange, S. Lange, Michael Forsting
European radiology · 2006 · vol. 17(3) , pp. 734–742 · doi:10.1007/s00330-006-0313-3 · PMID:16703306 · W2076537744
article OA: closed CC0 ⤵ 33 in-corpus citations
Full text JSON View on OpenAlex View on PubMed View at publisher
⚙ AI-generated summary by claude@2026-06+body, 2026-06-07 ⓘ

MRI measurements of uterine and cervical volume and wall thickness in healthy women increased with age until 41-50 years and then decreased, with no significant differences between menstrual cycle phases.

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

⚙ AI-generated deep summary by claude@2026-06, 2026-06-07 · read from full text ⓘ

This study used pelvic MRI in 100 healthy women to establish age- and menstrual cycle–related normal reference values for uterus and cervix volume, uterine wall layer thickness, and endometrial and junctional zone thickness. Women were also divided into two uterus groups: those with myomas and/or adenomyosis versus those without either, and comparisons were made across age and between menstrual cycle phases. Uterine and cervix volume and endometrial and junctional zone thickness increased significantly with age up to 41–50 years and then decreased, while no significant differences were found between menstrual cycle phases. The paper’s limitation is that cycle-phase comparisons were made without significant variation, despite analyzing multiple measured parameters; relevance to endometriosis and adenomyosis: the study explicitly stratified participants by presence of myomas and/or adenomyosis, though its primary goal was determining MRI normal values in healthy women.

Read from the paper's body, not the abstract. Not a substitute for reading the paper. No clinical advice. How this works

Full text 6,022 characters · extracted from oa-doi-fallback · 2 sections · click to expand

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to establish normal values for the volume of the uterus and cervix in MRI based on age and the menstrual cycle phase. We performed MRI of the pelvis in 100 healthy women. For the uterus, they were further divided into two groups: one with myomas and/or adenomyosis and one without either. The volume of the uterus and cervix and thickness of the uterine wall layers were analysed by age and the menstrual cycle phase. The mean volume of the uterus in both groups and the cervix significantly increased with age to reach its peak at 41–50 years, and then dropped. Likewise, the thickness of the endometrium and the junctional zone, but not the myometrium, significantly increased until 41–50 years, and then decreased. When we compared the volume of the uterus and cervix and the thickness of the uterine wall layers between the two phases of the menstrual cycle, we found no significant differences. The volume of the uterus and cervix and the thickness of the endometrium and junctional zone differ significantly with age, but not between the two phases of the menstrual cycle. Knowledge of MRI-related normal values can be expected to aid the early identification of uterine pathologies. Similar content being viewed by others

References

Nalaboff KM, Pellerito JS, Ben-Levi E (2001) Imaging the endometrium: disease and normal variants. Radiographics 21(6):1409–1424 Mitchell DG, Schonholz L, Hilpert PL, Pennell RG, Blum L, Rifkin MD (1990) Zones of the uterus: discrepancy between US and MR images. Radiology 174:827–831 Brown HK, Stoll BS, Nicosia SV, Fiorica JV, Hambley PS, Clarke LP, Silbiger ML (1991) Uterine junctional zone: correlation between histologic findings and MR imaging. Radiology 179(2):409–413 McCarthy S, Tauber C, Gore J (1986) Female pelvic anatomy: MR assessment of variations during the menstrual cycle and with use of oral contraceptives. Radiology 160:119–123 Haynor DR, Mack LA, Soules MR, Shuman WP, Montana MA, Moss AA (1986) Changing appearance of the normal uterus during the menstrual cycle: MR studies. Radiology 161(2):459–462 Togashi K, Nakai A, Sugimura K (2001) Anatomy and physiology of the female pelvis: MR imaging revisited. J Magn Reson Imaging 13(6):842–849 Hoad CL, Raine-Fenning NJ, Fulford J, Campbell BK, Johnson IR, Gowland PA (2005) Uterine tissue development in healthy women during the normal menstrual cycle and investigations with magnetic resonance imaging. Am J Obstet Gynecol 192(2):648–654 Naganawa S, Sato C, Kumada H, Ishigaki T, Miura S, Takizawa O (2005) Apparent diffusion coefficient in cervical cancer of the uterus: comparison with the normal uterine cervix. Eur Radiol 15(1):71–78 Hricak H, Tscholakoff D, Heinrichs L, Fisher MR, Dooms GC, Reinhold C, Jaffe RB (1986) Uterine leiomyomas: correlation of MR, histopathologic findings, and symptoms. Radiology 158(2):385–391 Mark AS, Hricak H, Heinrichs LW, Hendrickson MR, Winkler ML, Bachica JA, Stickler JE (1987) Adenomyosis and leiomyoma: differential diagnosis with MR imaging. Radiology 163(2):527–529, May Reinhold C, Tafazoli F, Mehio A, Wang L, Atri M, Siegelman ES, Rohoman L (1999) Uterine adenomyosis: endovaginal US and MR imaging features with histopathologic correlation. Radiographics 147–160 Togashi K, Nishimura K, Itoh K et al (1988) Adenomyosis: diagnosis with MR imaging. Radiology 166:111–114 Kido A, Togashi K, Koyama T, Yamaoka T, Fujiwara T, Fujii S (2003) Diffusely enlarged uterus: evaluation with MR imaging. Radiographics 23(6):1423–1439 Grasel RP, Outwater EK, Siegelman ES, Capuzzi D, Parker L, Hussain SM (2000) Endometrial polyps: MR imaging features and distinction from endometrial carcinoma. Radiology 214(1):47–52 Ito K, Matsumoto T, Nakada T, Fujita N, Yamashita H (1994) Assessing myometrial invasion by endometrial carcinoma with dynamic MRI. J Comput Assist Tomogr 18(1):77–86 Savci G, Ozyaman T, Tutar M, Bilgin T, Erol O, Tuncel E (1998) Assessment of depth of myometrial invasion by endometrial carcinoma: comparison of T2-weighted SE and contrast-enhanced dynamic GRE MR imaging. Eur Radiol 8(2):218–223 Okamoto Y, Tanaka YO, Nishida M, Tsunoda H, Yoshikawa H, Itai Y (2003) MR imaging of the uterine cervix: imaging-pathologic correlation. Radiographics 23(2):425–445 deSouza NM, Hawley IC, Schwieso JE, Gilderdale DJ, Soutter WP (1994) The uterine cervix on in vitro and in vivo MR images: a study of zonal anatomy and vascularity using an enveloping cervical coil. AJR Am J Roentgenol 163(3):607–612 Togashi K, Noma S, Ozasa H (1987) CT and MR demonstration of nabothian cysts mimicking a cystic adnexal mass. J Comput Assist Tomogr 11:1091–1092 Mittl RL, Yeh I-T, Kressel HY (1991) High-signal-intensity rim surrounding uterine leiomyomas on MR images: pathologic correlation. Radiology 180:81–83 Levine D, Gosink BB, Johnson LA, Johnson LA (1995) Change in endometrial thickness in postmenopausal women undergoing hormone replacement therapy. Radiology 197(3):603–608 Tsuda H, Kawabata M, Kawabata K, Yamamoto K, Umesaki N (1997) Improvement of diagnostic accuracy of transvaginal ultrasound for identification of endometrial malignancies by using cutoff level of endometrial thickness based on length of time since menopause. Gynecol Oncol 64(1):35–37 Zalud I, Conway C, Schulman H, Trinca D (1993) Endometrial and myometrial thickness and uterine blood flow in postmenopausal women: the influence of hormonal replacement therapy and age. J Ultrasound Med 12(12):737–741 Demas BE, Hricak H, Jaffe RB (1986) Uterine MR imaging: effects of hormonal stimulation. Radiology 159(1):123–126 Author information Authors and Affiliations Corresponding author Rights and permissions About this article Cite this article Hauth, E.A.M., Jaeger, H.J., Libera, H. et al. MR imaging of the uterus and cervix in healthy women: Determination of normal values. Eur Radiol 17, 734–742 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00330-006-0313-3 Received: Revised: Accepted: Published: Issue date: DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00330-006-0313-3

Text is read by the "Ask this paper" AI Q&A widget below. Extraction quality varies by source — PMC NXML preserves structure cleanly, OA-HTML may include some navigation residue, and OA-PDF can have broken hyphenation. The publisher copy (via DOI) is the canonical version.

My notes (saved in your browser only)

⚙ Ask this paper AI returns verbatim quotes from the full text · source: oa-doi-fallback ⓘ

Answers must be backed by verbatim quotes from this paper's full text. Hallucinated quotes are dropped automatically; if no verbatim passage answers the question, we say so. How this works

MeSH descriptors

Cervix Uteri Leiomyoma Magnetic Resonance Imaging Uterine Neoplasms Uterus Adult Aged Age Distribution Cervix Uteri Female Humans Leiomyoma Middle Aged Prospective Studies Radiographic Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted Reference Values Uterine Neoplasms Uterus

Citation neighborhood

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. [ expand to 2 hops ] — adds papers reached through this work's immediate citers/citees. Heavier; up to 60 extra dots.

References (24)

Cited by (33)

Source provenance

europepmc
last seen: 2026-06-04T01:30:01.192114+00:00
openalex
last seen: 2026-06-04T00:00:01.174412+00:00
pubmed
last seen: 2026-05-13T22:15:18.313808+00:00
License: CC0 · commercial use OK