Automated detection and measurement of uterine peristalsis in cine MR images

To evaluate the ability of automated software to quantify uterine peristalsis on cine magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

At 1.5T, half-Fourier acquisition single-shot turbo spin echo (HASTE) techniques were used to obtain 60 serial images over 3 minutes (TR/TE 3000/80 msec) in a midsagittal plane of the uterus. Thirty-two cine MR datasets, obtained from 16 healthy females, were analyzed. Uterine peristalsis was defined as the traveling waves of decreasing signal intensity on the endometrium-junctional zone border. The software detected traveling waves by identifying the neighboring areas showing similar patterns of signal intensity decrease in a different timing. Quantification of uterine peristaltic wave using the fully automated software was compared to qualitative visual evaluation by two readers.

The mean number (and standard deviation) of peristaltic waves detected by the fully automated software and visual evaluations (readers 1 and 2) were 5.4 (3.0), 4.7 (3.1), and 4.5 (3.1) per 3 minutes, respectively. Quantification by fully automated software demonstrated excellent agreement with repeated measurement (weighted kappa 0.99) and with qualitative visual evaluations (range 0.89-0.95), comparable to interreader agreement by visual evaluations (range 0.89-0.93).

The fully automated software can be used to quantify uterine peristalsis comparable to visual evaluation.