ULTRASOUND SCANNING

Does Ultrasound Scanning Could Detect All Accurate Diagnose Of Fetal Anomalies In Pregnant Women?



Table of Content

CHAPTER-I: INTRODUCTION3

Objectives of the Research4

Significance of the Study5

CHAPTER-III: LITERATURE REVIEW7

Fetal motility- Early investigations7

Ultrasonographic Investigations9

Screening or Diagnosis12

Need to Define Purpose12

Evaluation of Test Performance13

CHAPTER-III: CONCLUSION30

REFERENCES32



CHAPTER-II: LITERATURE REVIEW

Ultrasound screening in the second trimester Ultrasound screening is widely offered to all pregnant women in pregnancy weeks 17-20, and obstetricians express great enthusiasm for ultrasound as a tool for enhancing individual reproductive choice. Ultrasound holds a special position among prenatal tests because many people report that 'seeing' the fetus on the ultrasound monitor is an emotionally rewarding experience (Jim, 2004). Whatever their views about prenatal diagnosis, most expectant parents accept ultrasound screening for purposes suchas gestational age, 'seeing' the baby and receiving 'general reassurance' that the baby is intact and alive.

Fetal motility- Early investigations

Fetal motility began to be investigated scientifically only towards the end of the last century, and, before ultrasounds were introduced, several techniques were used to study it.

On the one hand one had the possibility of relying on the direct palpation of movements through the maternal abdominal wall often accompanied by auscultation with a stethoscope. Particularly important and incredibly 'modern' were the observations and intuitions of Preyer. As early as 1885 (March, 2004), he wrote in his classic book Spezielle Physiologie des Embryos that fetal movements started probably long before the twelfth week of pregnancy and he considered fetal motility (March, 2004) to be spontaneously generated and not a mere response to outside stimuli. He believed that the movements to be seen in the newborn were similar to those of the fetus and he recognized the abnormality and excess of movements of deformed fetuses. He also described fetal drinking of the amniotic fluid. All this was to be confirmed by the advent of ultrasounds, as, for instance, the onset of spontaneous motility was seen to start at 7.5 weeks post-menstrual age, and sucking and swallowing movements have now been clearly visualized (Mayo, 2003).

Generally speaking, though, apart from several brilliant but unverifiable intuitions, such studies permitted only a rough estimate of the quantity of clearly perceptible movements during the later stages of pregnancy.

More detailed observations were obtained through the study of non-viable aborted fetuses, particularly through the observation of their responses to various kinds of stimulation. Several observations were derived from such studies (Betty, 1999). In 1928 Minkowski (Mayo, 2003 mentions) described the spontaneous and induced motility of pre-agonic aborted fetuses from the second month of pregnancy. More recently experts continued along the same line of research and examined elicited movements in detail. The critical condition of the observed fetuses, though, rendered these observations less reliable when it came to formulating principles about the physiological condition of the fetus (March, 2004).

The same applied to many pioneering studies on lower animals, with the obvious added difficulty of drawing information from different species. Moreover, an interest in the origins of reflexes and neuromuscular development prompted these ...