Ladin's sign

Ladin's sign is a clinical sign of pregnancy in which there is softening in the midline of the uterus anteriorly at the junction of the uterus and cervix. It occurs and is detectable with a manual examination at about 6 weeks' gestation.[1] Ladin's sign is often present during the woman's first pelvic exam when pregnancy is suspected.[2] Cervical length is also significant in pregnancy and shorter or shortening length can increase chances of preterm labour and delivery as this shortening happens naturally at the beginning of labour.[3] The cervix softens from conception and combined with other signs of early pregnancy, detecting Ladin's sign can assist clinicians in verifying a diagnosis of pregnancy.[4]

Abnormal softening of the cervix can also occur in pregnancy, so testing for abnormalities of uterine cervical softening, including sheer wave speed measurement, can be used as a method of distinguishing between normal and abnormal softening.[5]

  1. ^ Alan H. DeCherney, Martin L. Pernoll, Lauren Nathan. Current Obstetric & Gynecologic Diagnosis & Treatment, page 196. McGraw-Hill Professional, 2002. ISBN 978-0-8385-1401-6. Google books
  2. ^ Clinical examination of pregnant women. National Collaborating Centre for Women's and Children's Health. March 2008. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
  3. ^ "Cervical length: Why does it matter during pregnancy? - Mayo Clinic". www.mayoclinic.org. Retrieved 2018-11-07.
  4. ^ Badir S, Mazza E, Zimmermann R, Bajka M (August 2013). "Cervical softening occurs early in pregnancy: characterization of cervical stiffness in 100 healthy women using the aspiration technique". Prenatal Diagnosis. 33 (8): 737–41. doi:10.1002/pd.4116. PMID 23553612. S2CID 25260888.
  5. ^ Rosado-Mendez IM, Carlson LC, Woo KM, Santoso AP, Guerrero QW, Palmeri ML, Feltovich H, Hall TJ (April 2018). "Quantitative assessment of cervical softening during pregnancy in the Rhesus macaque with shear wave elasticity imaging". Physics in Medicine and Biology. 63 (8): 085016. Bibcode:2018PMB....63h5016R. doi:10.1088/1361-6560/aab532. PMC 5908736. PMID 29517492.