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Home › Articles › Tests and Procedures › Smile for the Camera, Baby

Smile for the Camera, Baby

The New World of Ultrasounds

By Teri Brown

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Like everything else in the medical world, ultrasound technology is growing by leaps and bounds. This gives new parents far more options than they used to have when it comes to viewing their unborn babies in their natural habitats, so to speak.

A Different View
For years ultrasound images have been two-dimensional (2D), and the physician and/or sonographer would take these images and imagine how they would look in three-dimension. With the new advances in technology, three- and four-dimensional ultrasounds are now possible.

Dr. Ngozi Osuagwu, an OB/GYN and author of the forthcoming book, Letters to My Sisters – Plain Truths and Straightforward Advice From a Gynecologist (Ben Bosah Books, 2006), says with the new technology, they can take a 2D image and slice the images to see it in 3D on the screen. "We can manipulate the images in different angles," says Dr. Osuagwu. "With four-dimensional [4D] we can see the images immediately as we are scanning the patient."

Dr. Osuagwu says that 3D and 4D ultrasound is still new technology at this time and not widely available, though that is changing. "3D and 4D ultrasonography is still new technology in most places and does not represent the standard of care," says Dr. Osuagwu. "Patients have to realize that the images they get may not look like the ones seen on television. Less than 20 percent get those kinds of images in the physicians' offices."

Improving Prenatal Care
Dr. Osuagwu says the traditional 2D ultrasound will most likely remain the standard in diagnostic ultrasound studies used by physicians. If problems are suspected then the 3D and 4D ultrasounds will be ordered.

"Diagnostic 3D/4D ultrasound is utilized by physicians to better visualize the fetal heart and to identify any surface and spinal anomalies," says Dr. Osuagwu. "As with all technology it is an advancement and furthers our understanding in managing the care of the unborn child."


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