Ladin's sign explained

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]

See also

• Chadwick sign
• Goodell's sign
• Hegar sign

Notes and References

1. Alan H. DeCherney, Martin L. Pernoll, Lauren Nathan. Current Obstetric & Gynecologic Diagnosis & Treatment, page 196. McGraw-Hill Professional, 2002. . Google books
2. Book: Clinical examination of pregnant women. National Collaborating Centre for Women's and Children's Health. March 2008 . NICE Clinical Guidelines . 62 .
3. Web site: Cervical length: Why does it matter during pregnancy? - Mayo Clinic. www.mayoclinic.org. en. 2018-11-07.
4. Badir S, Mazza E, Zimmermann R, Bajka M . Cervical softening occurs early in pregnancy: characterization of cervical stiffness in 100 healthy women using the aspiration technique . Prenatal Diagnosis . 33 . 8 . 737–41 . August 2013 . 23553612 . 10.1002/pd.4116 . 25260888 .
5. Rosado-Mendez IM, Carlson LC, Woo KM, Santoso AP, Guerrero QW, Palmeri ML, Feltovich H, Hall TJ . Quantitative assessment of cervical softening during pregnancy in the Rhesus macaque with shear wave elasticity imaging . Physics in Medicine and Biology . 63 . 8 . 085016 . April 2018 . 29517492 . 5908736 . 10.1088/1361-6560/aab532 . 2018PMB....63h5016R .