西村 宏祐, 大場 隆, 岩政 仁, 松浦 講平, 岡村 均

Kosuke NISHIMURA, Takashi OHBA, Jin IWAMASA, Kohei MATSUURA, Hitoshi OKAMURA

熊本大学医学部産科婦人科学教室

Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Kumamoto University Medical School

キーワード : Ultrasound, Transvaginal probe, Cervical mucus, Cervix uteri, Infertility

Cervical mucus has been a popular means of assessing the ovarian response to treatment for infertility. When performing transvaginal ultrasonography to monitor follicle development, we simultaneously examined the uterine cervix to evaluate the cervical mucus.
Materials and Methods: Fifty-nine infertile women, either in ovulation induction cycles or in spontaneous ovulatory cycles, were included in this study. All of the ultrasound studies were performed with a SONOVISTA (SONOVISTA SL-1577, Mochida, Japan) utilizing a mechanical sector scanning transvaginal probe which alternated between 5.0 MHz and 7.5 MHz by a switch on the panel. After assessing the ovarian folliculogenesis and endometrial development, the uterine cervix was examined. If an anechoic area appeared on the uterine cervix, we measured the length and width of the area and recorded its shape. After the sonographic measurements, the cervical mucus was measured using a speculum in order to analyze the relationship between the size of the anechoic area and the amount of cervical mucus.
Results: In 78.3% (72/92) of the cases, we found an anechoic area in the cervix. After removing the cervical mucus, the anechoic area disappeared. The sonographic measurements of anechoic areas were significantly correlated with the amount of the cervical mucus present (pConclusion: Using the transvaginal approach, in approximately 80% of the cases, we observed the sonographic image of cervical mucus as an anechoic area. There was a significant relationship between the anechoic area and the amount of cervical mucus. This new approach for estimating the amount of cervical mucus with transvaginal ultrasonography will be helpful in assessing the biological activities of estrogen.