Real-Time Scanner Shows Live Fetus

              Real-time scanner shows live fetus
By MARSHA SHULER
Times Medical Writer
A baby's heart beats. You can
see the fast movement of the
heart and its valves.
A measurement is taken of the
baby's head from which some
estimation can be made of the
baby's weight.
The baby has not been born yet.
In use is a real-time scanner, a
piece of sophisticated equipment
used in the LSU Medical Center's
obstetrics department to actually
see what is happening inside a
prospective mother's abdomen
while it is happening — in "real"
time.
The ultrasound equipment can
detect, among other things,
whether twins are involved,
whether the baby is growmg
properly, the condition of the
placenta and whether there are
fetal abnormalities involved.
Besides allowing the doctor to
view the actual, moving fetus,
the machine has the capabilities
of both making a Polaroid pic-ture,
which can be kept as a
permanent record, and putting
the movement on a video tape
recorder for later, more acute,
perusal should there be uncer-tainty
about the scan results.
The real-time scanner has ad-vantages
over other pieces of
equipment used in obstetrics,
said Dr. Horace Thompson, head
of the Obstetrics and Gynecology
Department. It can "identify
whether the baby is alive or
dead. Its dynamic action can be
important in determining wheth-er
a baby is doing well or not, its
number of movements and the
actual measurement of the
heart," he said.
The real-time scanner is also a
much simpler piece of equipment
than others.
It is non-invasive and it doesn't
hurt the patient. The woman lies
on a table and mineral oil is
The Shreveport Times
Thurs., Dec. 21, 1978
Section E Page One
Midweek Spotlight
spread on her abdomen so the
high frequency ultrasound pro-cedure
can be conducted.
The head of a transducer, a
small box about the size of a
pocket calculator, is placed on
the abdomen to scan the develop-ing
fetus. The vibrations nor-mally
used range from 3.5 to 7
million per second, Thompson
said. The higher the frequency,
the more details can be obtained,
but the degree of penetration is
lower. In obstetrics, penetration
into the abdomen ranges between
10 and 15 centimeters, he said.
Idea of baby's size
While being able to view the
movement of the baby and other
things about the fetus in its early
stages, the machine can also give
doctors an idea of the baby's size
as it advances in the pregnancy.
On the machine is a calibrator,
which can measure the size of a
baby's head and trunk so doctors
can estimate its size.
"The activity of the fetus is
important, and this piece of
equipment does the job we need.
It answers our questions,"
Thompson said.
The machine is not used on all
obstetric patients. "In any pro-cedure
you are doing, you have to
use discretion," Thompson said.
"We don't use it just to let the
mother see her child as it de-velops,"
Thompson said. The
equipment, which he estimates is
used three to eight times a day, is
used when problems are sus-pected
in a pregnancy.
Some doctors, he said, believe
that every patient should be
scanned with the equipment be-cause
enough information can be
gleaned to warrant it. But
Thompson — who was one of the
developers of the use of ul-trasound
equipment such as the
real-time scanner — said he be-lieves
that any power energy
source of any kind should be used
only if there is a reason for doing
so.
Research project
Thompson said ultrasound has
been used on obstetric patients
for some 15 years, and there have
been no reported instances of I
(Times photos bv Lee Shively)
Dr. Horace Thompson explains the use of the real-time scanner to his left
detrimental effects to the fetus.
He is currently working on a
research project on the subject,
which was begun while he was at
the University of Colorado.
The project involves compar-ing
some 1,600 children between
the ages of six and 10 who were
exposed to ultrasound before
birth with the same number of
children who were not.
A baby's head can be seen inside the womb