Visual Inspection of Transvaginal Ultrasound Videos to Characterize Uterine Peristalsis: an Inter-observer Agreement Study

Overview

Journal J Ultrasound

Publisher Springer

Specialty Radiology

Date 2019 Feb 17

PMID 30771103

Citations 3

Authors

N P M Kuijsters

F Sammali

C Rabotti

Y Huang

M Mischi

B C Schoot

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Purpose: Contractions in non-pregnant uterine can be assessed by visual inspection of transvaginal ultrasound (TVUS). Many authors have used this method to extract features like contraction frequency and direction. However, visual inspection is a subjective method and the outcome is dependent on the sonographers and video analysts. In this study, we wanted to see which uterine feature is reproducible enough, in terms of inter-observer agreement, to serve as a reliable control for future research.

Methods: Six observers assessed 80 TVUS videos, and rated video quality, contraction frequency, direction and timing. One observer assessed operating time. A Fleiss' kappa (κ) or an intra-class correlation (ICC) was calculated to determine the inter-observer agreement of all features.

Results: The inter-observer agreement in frequency was substantial (ICC = 0.68). Conversely, there was just slight to fair agreement in contraction timing and direction and in video quality: ICC = 0.26, κ = 0.17 and κ = 0.16, respectively. Overall, agreement among technical engineers was better than between medical professionals. The level of agreement was correlated with video quality, phase of the menstrual cycle and individual patient (all χ with p < 0.00). The time to analyze one video ranged between 6 and 20 min.

Conclusions: This study shows that visual inspection of TVUS videos is a fairly reproducible method to assess contraction frequency. However, the operating time is too extensive to implement this method in daily practice. Automated methods could offer a solution for this problem in the future.

Citing Articles

The use of transvaginal ultrasound alters physiologic uterine peristalsis in gynecologic participants.

Anderson K, Wang S, Pizzella S, Wang Q, Wang Y, Ratts V F S Rep. 2024; 5(3):296-303.

PMID: 39381650 PMC: 11456659. DOI: 10.1016/j.xfre.2024.06.004.

Automated measurement of endometrial peristalsis in cine transvaginal ultrasound images.

Wang Y, Li X, Wei N, Liu Y, Liu X, Sun R Front Physiol. 2022; 13:983177.

PMID: 36187777 PMC: 9523211. DOI: 10.3389/fphys.2022.983177.

Does adjuvant letrozole reduce uterine peristalsis prior to fresh embryo transfer?.

Holt M, Warzecha A, Bulow N, Skouby S, Englund A, Birch Petersen K Hum Reprod Open. 2022; 2022(2):hoac011.

PMID: 35356508 PMC: 8962678. DOI: 10.1093/hropen/hoac011.

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