Erin M Louwagie, Serena R Russell, Jacqueline C Hairston, Claire Nottman, Chia-Ling Nhan-Chang, Karin Fuchs, Cynthia Gyamfi-Bannerman, Whitney Booker, Maria Andrikopoulou, Alexander Friedman, Noelia Zork, Ronald Wapner, Joy Vink, Mirella Mourad, Helen M Feltovich, Michael D House, Kristin M Myers
The coordinated biomechanical performance, such as uterine stretch and cervical barrier function, within maternal reproductive tissues facilitates healthy human pregnancy and birth. Quantifying normal biomechanical function and detecting potentially detrimental biomechanical dysfunction (e.g., cervical insufficiency, uterine overdistention, premature rupture of membranes) is difficult, largely due to minimal data on the shape and size of maternal anatomy and material properties of tissue across gestation. This study quantitates key structural features of human pregnancy to fill this knowledge gap and facilitate three-dimensional modeling for biomechanical pregnancy simulations to deeply explore pregnancy and childbirth...
May 3, 2024: bioRxiv