Compression Optical Coherence Elastography for Assessing Elasticity of the Vaginal Wall under Prolapse after Neodymium Laser Treatment

Autor: Ekaterina Gubarkova, Arseniy Potapov, Darya Krupinova, Ksenia Shatilova, Maria Karabut, Andrey Khlopkov, Maria Loginova, Aleksander Sovetsky, Vladimir Zaitsev, Stefka Radenska-Lopovok, Natalia Gladkova, Gennady Grechkanev, Marina Sirotkina
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2022
Předmět:
Zdroj: Photonics, Vol 10, Iss 1, p 6 (2022)
Druh dokumentu: article
ISSN: 2304-6732
DOI: 10.3390/photonics10010006
Popis: Early stages of pelvic organ prolapses are mainly associated with the pelvic floor disfunction as a result of elasticity changes in the connective tissues including the vaginal wall. In this study, for the first time we used a compression optical coherence elastography (C-OCE) method for assessing elasticity of the vaginal wall under prolapse conditions after intravaginal neodymium (Nd:YAG) laser treatment. C-OCE was used for a comparative ex vivo study of vaginal wall average values of stiffness (elastic Young’s modulus) in patients with age norm (n = 6), stage I–II prolapse (n = 5) without treatment and stage I–II prolapse post 1–2 months Nd:YAG laser treatment (n = 10). To verify the C-OCE data, the structural features of the submucosal connective tissue were identified morphometrically by Van Gieson staining using quantitative textural analysis of the state of collagen bundles. The results of a comparative evaluation of C-OCE and histological images demonstrate a statistically significant tissue stiffness decrease in vaginal wall prolapse compared to the age norm (73.5 ± 18.9 kPa vs. 233.5 ± 48.3 kPa; p < 0.05). This agrees with the histologically revealed increase in the space between the bundles of collagen fibers, which leads to a decrease in the uniformity of their arrangement. After Nd:YAG laser treatment, we observed statistically significant connective tissue stiffness increase compared to vaginal wall prolapse without treatment (152.1 ± 19.2 kPa vs. 73.5 ± 18.9 kPa; p < 0.05), which was associated with an increase in the local thickness of the collagen bundles, a change in their orientation, and an increase in the uniformity of their arrangement. The obtained results indicate that the C-OCE can be a robust method for detecting the early stages of vaginal wall prolapse and assessing the elastic modulus increase in the vaginal wall after laser treatment.
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