3D Scan and 4D Baby Ultrasound Scans Resource for Scientific Information.

We have collected interesting and informative scientific publications that should give you some basic information on ultrasound and in particular 3d and 4d baby scans.

Our services are founded on a solid scientific basis and backed by many years of experience across the world. You are welcome to indulge yourself in a heap of information selected and presented in a way that is easily understandable even if you have never seen the inside of a medical school! Please enjoy.

You can also post us a question on any matter you do not clearly understand. This is a free professional service.

Summary

Ultrasound scanning: a screening or diagnostic technique in which very high frequency sound waves are passed into the body, and the reflected echoes are detected and analyzed to build a picture of the internal organs or of a fetus in the uterus.
3D scans and 4D scans utilise the same sound wave technology as 2D; however instead of the sound wave being sent straight down and reflected back, they are sent at different angles. The returning echoes are processed by a highly sophisticated computer programme resulting in a reconstructed three dimensional volume.

3d baby scans and 4d scan summary of evidence on safety, use and development this 3D ultrasound technology.

Science and clinical experience is constantly being updated. It is impossible to keep up with the pace if you are not a specialist. We will do our best to provide you with the relevant information, containing the latest development and clinical application of the technology. More importantly we want to reassure our clients of the safety of ultrasound and the relatively newer 3d and 4d technology by publishing new information as we get it. Please read on!

3d and 4d ultrasound scanning Full Articles

1. 4D and 3D Scans

Ultrasound: a screening or diagnostic technique in which very high frequency sound waves are passed into the body, and the reflected echoes are detected and analyzed to build a picture of the internal organs or of a fetus in the uterus.
3D scans and 4D scans utilise the same sound wave technology as 2D; however instead of the sound wave being sent straight down and reflected back, they are sent at different angles. The returning echoes are processed by a highly sophisticated computer programme resulting in a reconstructed three dimensional volume.

The article provides the reader with an insight into General Ultrasound & 4D in particular.. read more

2. 4D: What the medical literature says

Journal of Ultrasound in Medicine. 24(12):1599-624, 2005 Dec.
The article published in this prestigious journal looked at over 500 scientific articles on this subject. The results of the various studies reported in those articles clearly showed that Three-dimensional ultrasound provides additional diagnostic information for the diagnosis of facial anomalies, especially facial clefts. There was also evidence that 3D ultrasound provides additional diagnostic information in neural tube defects and skeletal malformations.

Here we have a summary of some publications which have appeared in scientific journals over the last five years or so on the subject.. read more

3. The 4D Baby Scan experience – A sonographer’s point of view

It is amazing to see so much detail with the 4D scan and see this little person behaving in a way we only usually see when the baby is born. Mothers and Fathers love to see their baby sucking its thumb or toes, smiling and wriggling around. Mums tend to bond with their babies more easily as they feel their baby moving but I have found fathers to get very emotional as they ‘meet their baby’ in a way they can relate to - we have had many a tear in the scan room! Read More »»

This article was written by our Lead Sonographer Sharon Smewing. Sharon is Superintendent of ultrasound services at a large local NHS Trust. Along with her management role, Sharon also teaches and has 20 yrs obstetric and gynaecological scanning experience. Read More »»

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1). 4D and 3D Ultrasound Scans

Definitions

Ultrasound: a screening or diagnostic technique in which very high frequency sound waves are passed into the body, and the reflected echoes are detected and analyzed to build a picture of the internal organs or of a foetus in the uterus

3D ultrasound: a technique that provides a three-dimensional picture; allows one to see width, height, and depth of images. The 3D images can also be captured and saved for later review.

4D ultrasound: a technique that allows visualization of the unborn baby moving in real-time. With 4D imaging, a three-dimensional image is continuously updated, providing a "live action" view.

Overview

Ultrasound has been used in obstetrics for well over 35 years. There has been extensive studies that have shown that Ultrasound is safe for mother and baby.

Ultrasound examination in pregnancy has become routine throughout the developed world for many years now and in emerging economies, only resource constraints have limited the extent of use.

4D ultrasound presents images with incredible surface detail not possible with traditional 2D ultrasound.

3D and 4D ultrasound utilises the same sound wave technology as 2D; however instead of the sound wave being sent straight down and reflected back, they are sent at different angles. The returning echoes are processed by a highly sophisticated computer programme resulting in a reconstructed three dimensional volume.

In the case of pregnancy, you get a clear, life-like image of the baby.
The images are displayed with quite amazing surface details which delineates facial, limbs and body features.

How does 4D ultrasound differ from traditional 2D?

Traditional 2D ultrasound employs sound waves which are reflected back in uni-direction. This means the waves are sent and reflected straight back.
A clear analogy will be that of a knife going through a loaf of bread. It will give you a slice. Looking at the surface of the slice in isolation you can get an impression but you cannot possibly know how the loaf looked like in totality.

4D ultrasound uses the same high frequency sound waves as 2D. The difference is that, the waves are sent into the body at multiple different angles. The reflected waves are then computer-processed to reconstitute and produce the life-like image complete with movements. If it was bread, you will see the whole loaf! It is awesome. The technology has been there for a number of years now but it is the advent of affordable sophisticated computing power that has made this possible at the consumer level.

Some people have described the advent of 3D/4D ultrasound as a democratisation of medicine by allowing patients/prospective parents to see and appreciate what the doctor sees. People can see characteristics of the baby's face, facial expressions and all sorts of movements and actions the baby makes because the clarity is so sharp. 4D baby scanning allows parents and even sibling to literally spend some time with their prospective new addition to the family unit.

Benefits

3D/4D ultrasound promises to quite possibly make it easier for doctors to see anomalies. This is however, work in progress. The benefit that is certainly already realized through 4D is that it is much easier for parents to see and understand any features, normal or abnormal, that with traditional 2-D was very difficult or impossible for them to decipher.

Suboptimal volume-rendered images are obtained if there are inadequate amniotic fluids surrounding the structure of interest. This is a major limitation with reduced liquor volume and as the foetus progresses towards term. The adjacent structures cannot be excluded from the rendered volume in these cases and this interferes with surface rendering
Unacceptable surface rendering occurs with unfavourable fetal position and with adjacent or superimposed structures (e.g., limbs, umbilical cord)
Image processing of the volume data may take additional time on the part of the examiner
Real-time capacity is not generally available with three-dimensional ultrasound. (Real time three-dimensional ultrasound is also known as 4-D ultrasound.) Whereas 3D ultrasound is a static display of the various reformatting techniques based on the acquisition of a static volume, 4D ultrasound displays a continuously updated and newly acquired volume in any rendering modality creating the impression of a moving structure. The time vector (the fourth dimension) makes it possible to perceive a rapid update of the successive individual images displayed on the monitor at very short intervals which creates the impression of a real time measurement, and enables the user to see fetal motion in almost real-time.

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If you would like to contribute or share articles related to the content of this web site please write to "linksmaster" using the email form located HERE .

2). 4D: What the medical literature says

2005
Journal of Ultrasound in Medicine. 24(12):1599-624, 2005 Dec.
The article published in this prestigious journal looked at over 500 scientific articles on this subject. The results of the various studies reported in those articles clearly showed that Three-dimensional ultrasound provides additional diagnostic information for the diagnosis of facial anomalies, especially facial clefts. There was also evidence that 3D baby ultrasound provides additional diagnostic information in neural tube defects and skeletal malformations. It was also concluded that additional research was needed to determine the clinical role of 3D/4D ultrasound for the diagnosis of congenital heart disease and central nervous system anomalies.

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Journal: Ultrasound in Obstetrics & Gynecology. 25(5):473-7, 2005 May.
Authors E K Ji and others from the Department of Radiology, CHA General Hospital, Pochon CHA University, Seoul, Republic of Korea published an article titled ‘Effects of ultrasound on maternal-fetal bonding: a comparison of two- and three-dimensional imaging’ in May 2005. Their study had shown that ‘Patients having a 3D ultrasound examination consistently scored higher than those having a 2D ultrasound examination alone for all categories of maternal-fetal bonding’.

Ultrasound in obstetrics & gynecology is the official journal of the International Society of Ultrasound in Obstetrics and Gynecology.

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2004
Journal: Current Opinion in Obstetrics & Gynecology. 16(2):123-8, 2004 Apr.
P Malcus in the publication Current Opinion in Obstetrics & Gynecology wrote a review article titled ‘Antenatal fetal surveillance’. The thrust of the article was that modern obsterics has moved on from waiting for problems to arise in pregnancy to targeted active surveillance of fetal wellbeing. In this area 3D baby ultrasound could play a crucial role in fetal biometry with potentially more accurate (and quicker) measurements of fetal size (growth), amniotic fluid volumes etc.

2004
Writing in this publication in October 2004, Christina Poon and Philippe Zimmern explained that the technique of three-dimensional ultrasound imaging has been developing over the past 15 years, and has been particularly embraced by the field of obstetrics. Application in other areas such as gynaecology especially in examining the urinary tract and pelvic floor continue to advance. This is particularly useful and promising considering the enormity of the problem of urinary incontinence among women. In this area, it is already proving useful by providing reproducible, affordable and clinically relevant information in the assessment of urethral bulking agent therapy with collagen.

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2002
Journal: Current Opinion in Obstetrics & Gynecology. 14(6):569-75, 2002 Dec.
I.E. Timor-Tritsch and L.D.Platt wrote an article in this publication in December 2002 titled ‘Three-dimensional ultrasound experience in obstetrics’. It was a review article of over 60 published scientific papers on the subject of 3D ultrasound. in the article, these authors said: The advantages of 3D and 4D baby ultrasound in certain clinical areas are unequivocal. Its use in the workup of fetal anomalies involving the face, limbs, thorax, spine and the central nervous system are already applied by most centers. The use of this technology in applying colour Doppler, in guiding needles for different puncture procedures as well as in the evaluation of the fetal heart are under close research scrutiny. The bonding effect between the parents and their future offspring is becoming more and more evident as 3D ultrasound is used.

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2001
Journal: Obstetrics & Gynecology. 98(6):1099-103, 2001 Dec.
In December 2001,researchers B Woelfer and others from the Early Pregnancy and Gynaecology Assessment Unit at King’s College, London published results of their study under an article titled ‘Reproductive outcomes in women with congenital uterine anomalies detected by three-dimensional ultrasound screening’. In this, they had looked at reproductive outcomes in women with congenital uterine anomalies detected incidentally by 3D scanning. The conclusion was that these women were more likely to have adverse pregnancy outcomes than women with a normal uterus. This is an unexpected ‘benefit’ of this technology as it will allow the mother with this risk factor to be identified and therefore allow optimal measures to be put in place to maximize the chances of a favourable pregnancy outcome.

2000
Journal: Annual Review of Biomedical Engineering Vol. 2: 457-475, Aug.
In August 2000, this publication carried a highly detailed article by Aaron Fenster and Donal Downey of The John P. Robarts Research Institute and Department of Diagnostic Radiology & Nuclear Medicine, The University of Western Ontario, Canada. It was titled simply: Three-dimensional Ultrasound imaging.
The article was mainly directed at professionals in the field and largely technical. However it dissected the reasons for the increased quest for using 3D ultrasound. They said that the increase in the use of 3D ultrasound is related to the limitations of 2D viewing of 3D anatomy, using conventional ultrasound. This, they said, occurs because conventional ultrasound images are two-dimensional, yet the anatomy is three dimensional, hence the doctor/technician must integrate multiple images in his/her mind. This practice is clearly inefficient, and may lead to variability and even incorrect diagnoses. Moreover, the 2-dimensional ultrasound image represents a thin plane at some arbitrary angle in the body. It is, in practice, difficult to localize the image plane and reproduce it at a later time for follow-up studies.

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1999
From 9th World Congress On Ultrasound in Obstetrics & Gynecology, November- Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Many experts from across the world met at the congress and 3D ultrasound was a major topic covered. It was acknowledged by various speakers that this was a major advance in medical diagnostics. There was excitement that a very important addition in our armamentarium was steadily coming into mainstream medical practice. As always, there was a fair dose of caution that many tough challenges lay ahead and as one speaker, Andrew Hull, from San Diego, USA, put it succinctly in his lecture, 3D ultrasound, like any new technology, had potential pitfalls and therefore misdiagnosis. Some of these are observed in conventional 2D ultrasound and others are unique to 3D. Today, more than five years since that talk, many of these have been overcome and many others are still to be resolved. However, the place of 3D/4D ultrasound, as an extremely beneficial technology, is no longer in doubt.

Limitations of 3D/4D scans
Limitations of three-dimensional ultrasound of the fetus are as follows:

Suboptimal volume-rendered images are obtained if there is inadequate amniotic fluid surrounding the structure of interest. This is a major limitation with reduced liquor volume and as the fetus progresses towards term. The adjacent structures cannot be excluded from the rendered volume in these cases and this interferes with surface rendering. In other words, when there is little water or when the baby is relatively large (as in the final weeks and days of pregnancy), images can be poor and unclear.

Unacceptable surface rendering occurs with unfavorable fetal position and with adjacent or superimposed structures (e.g., limbs, umbilical cord)

Image processing of the volume data may take additional time on the part of the examiner

Real-time capacity is not generally available with three-dimensional ultrasound. (Real time three-dimensional ultrasound is also known as 4D ultrasound.) Whereas 3D ultrasound is a static display of the various reformatting techniques based on the acquisition of a static volume, 4D ultrasound displays a continuously updated and newly acquired volume in any rendering modality creating the impression of a moving structure. The time vector (the fourth dimension) makes it possible to perceive a rapid update of the successive individual images displayed on the monitor at very short intervals which creates the impression of a real time measurement, and enables the user to see fetal motion in almost real-time.

__________________________________________

If you would like to contribute or share articles related to the content of this web site please write to "linksmaster" using the email form located HERE .

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