Women's Health Ultrasound

A growing number of private enterprises are using ultrasound to provide nonmedical fetal "keepsake" videos and/or prenatal portraits to pregnant women and their families. Eye-catching names such as 3DBabyVu, Fetal Fotos, Peek-A-Boo Baby, and Womb With a View are popping up in shopping centers across the country.

Vasa previa, a condition that affects approximately one in 2500 pregnancies, is almost always lethal. Adding vasa previa screening to current obstetrical ultrasound protocols could prevent mortality, according to an international group of researchers from Israel, the U.K., and the U.S. Their study was presented at the American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine meeting in June.

Faster MR scans are overcoming the weaknesses of past efforts to use this modality for fetal imaging. Advances in speed and resolution are apparent in mapping the fetal brain.

Cedara Software of Toronto has come up with a package that quickly renders 3D fetal views. The software is designed to allow sonographers to view 3D renderings as part of their usual workflow routine through the use of image acquisition and rendering

While three-dimensional ultrasound is not yet as fast as two-dimensionalimaging, reconstructed 3-D images may provide diagnostic informationthat standard scanning techniques cannot provide, according toRalph Ranalli, product manager for Philips