Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Academic Medical Center, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Arch Gynecol Obstet. 2011 Sep;284(3):521-6. doi: 10.1007/s00404-011-1892-z. Epub 2011 Apr 12.
Transvaginal cervical length measurement in women with symptoms of preterm labor has been used to decide if treatment is necessary. Cervical length measurement may also have additional effects on patients, such as providing reassurance, although the evidence to support this is unclear. We explored and summarized to what extent additional effects of cervical length measurement in women with threatened preterm labor have been reported in the clinical literature and what the magnitude of these effects was.
We performed a systematic review of the literature to identify articles reporting on cervical length measurements in women with symptoms of preterm labor. We assessed whether these articles reported patient outcomes other than preterm delivery.
The electronic and hand search resulted in 764 articles, of which 172 met initial criteria for further eligibility assessment. We found 12 articles that reported additional effects of cervical length measurement in symptomatic women, such as the reassurance or the sensory consequences related to the transvaginal procedure. None of the articles quantified such additional effects.
There appears to be a gap between the presumed effects of cervical length measurement on patient outcomes, such as patients' reassurance, and the actual assessment of these effects during test evaluations. We suggest that future evaluations of prognostic preterm labor tests include a comprehensive assessment of patient outcomes.
对有早产症状的女性进行经阴道宫颈长度测量，以决定是否需要治疗。宫颈长度测量可能对患者有额外的影响，例如提供安慰，但支持这一观点的证据并不明确。我们探讨并总结了在有早产先兆的女性中，经阴道宫颈长度测量的额外效果在临床文献中有多大程度被报道，以及这些效果的大小。
我们对文献进行了系统回顾，以确定报告有早产症状的女性进行宫颈长度测量的文章。我们评估了这些文章是否报告了除早产以外的患者结局。
电子和手工搜索共产生了 764 篇文章，其中 172 篇符合进一步资格评估的初步标准。我们发现了 12 篇报告了经阴道宫颈长度测量对有症状的女性的额外效果的文章，例如对患者的安慰或与阴道检查相关的感觉后果。但没有一篇文章对这些额外的效果进行量化。
在经阴道宫颈长度测量对患者结局（如患者的安慰）的预期效果和对这些效果在测试评估中的实际评估之间，似乎存在差距。我们建议，未来对预测早产的试验进行评估时，应包括对患者结局的全面评估。
