Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Kantonsspital St. Gallen, Rorschacherstrasse 95, 9007, St. Gallen, Switzerland.
Lasers Med Sci. 2011 Mar;26(2):205-12. doi: 10.1007/s10103-010-0832-7. Epub 2010 Sep 3.
Preterm labor is a common obstetric complication. Clinical evaluation of cervical ripening to predict preterm labor is very inaccurate. We used frequency-domain near-infrared spectroscopy (FD-NIRS) to non-invasively investigate the changes of the optical properties (i.e., absorption and scattering of light) in the uterine cervix during regular pregnancies. Optical properties of uterine cervices were measured in 13 patients at various time points of regular pregnancies. For each gestational trimester, mean values with 95% confidence intervals were calculated for oxy-, deoxy-, and total hemoglobin concentration (O(2)Hb, HHb, tHb), tissue oxygen saturation and water content and statistically significant differences between the trimesters were determined. The wavelength-dependent scattering (scatter power) was calculated by an exponential fit. O(2)Hb, and tHb and the scatter power showed an increase as a function of the gestational age. Differences between the second and the third trimester were statistically significant. HHb and the water content showed no significant change over time. Our results show that FD-NIRS is a promising diagnostic tool for providing information about cervical content of hemoglobin, water, and extracellular matrix proteins. We propose this technology to assess the cervical ripening and eventually to predict preterm labor.
早产是一种常见的产科并发症。临床评估宫颈成熟度来预测早产非常不准确。我们使用频域近红外光谱（FD-NIRS）技术无创地研究了正常妊娠期间子宫颈的光学特性（即光的吸收和散射）的变化。在正常妊娠的不同时间点，对 13 名患者的子宫颈光学特性进行了测量。对于每个妊娠三分之一期，计算了每个三分之一期的平均氧合血红蛋白、脱氧血红蛋白和总血红蛋白浓度（O(2)Hb、HHb、tHb）、组织氧饱和度和水含量的 95%置信区间，并确定了各三分之一期之间的统计学显著差异。通过指数拟合计算了波长相关的散射（散射功率）。O(2)Hb、tHb 和散射功率随着胎龄的增加而增加。第二和第三三分之一期之间的差异具有统计学意义。HHb 和水含量随时间没有明显变化。我们的结果表明，FD-NIRS 是一种很有前途的诊断工具，可以提供有关血红蛋白、水和细胞外基质蛋白的宫颈含量的信息。我们提出这项技术来评估宫颈成熟度，并最终预测早产。
