The Worldwide Mesh Technology Centre
This was it, 15th May, the big day: Johnson & Johnson's Worldwide Mesh Technology Centre was officially opening in Norderstedt near Hamburg, Germany.
Obstetrics
Article • MRgFUS
Successful therapy for uterine fibroids using MRgFUS
Magnetic Resonance Guided Focused Ultrasound (MRgFUS) therapy was introduced in June at the Amperklinikum in Dachau, near Munich, the third German site, after Berlin and Bochum for this new technology.
Pregnant Jessica
Wales - Jessica Tate is pregnant. Hers is a normal pregnancy. There is, however, some concern because she wants her baby to be born at home, but is often alone there because her partner must travel for his work. Mid-term, she is tired and has mild anaemia. At one stage in her pregnancy she also falsely believes labour has started and is worried. However, all should go well. She benefits from…
Fibroid Embolisation: So Promising for Women, So Unavailable in Europe
Uterine fibroids are the most common form of benign pelvic tumor, with about 30-50% of women between the ages of 35-45 years reporting them. Although many women are asymptomatic, those who experience the symptoms of bladder pressure, frequent and very heavy menstrual periods, and uterine pain, have a reduced quality of life.
High Speed MRI Devices Gaining Use in Foetal Evaluation
Magnetic resonance imaging is increasingly gaining importance as a second imaging process in prenatal diagnosis in addition to ultrasound examination, Dr. Daniela Prayer, a pediatric radiologist of the University Clinic for Radiological Diagnostics at the Vienna University Hospital, told reporters at a press conference held Friday.
The high profile agenda of Europe's biggest radiology congress
The 2008 ECR promises to be international, controversial, inspiring, as well as a meeting in which new insights for inter-professional relationships and working practices are sought. The programme is impressive indeed.
First Czech "test-tube" baby celebrated 25th birthday
The first Czech test-tube baby was born, woman in childbed delivered smoothly on 4th November 1982, and healthy baby-boy was 51 cm tall, and weighed 3.65 kg. A medical team from Moravian town of Brno led by embryologist Milan Dvorak and gynecologist Ladislav Pilka was behind all this happy-ended artificial fertilization quarter a century ago.
Pulse oximetry - screening tool in newborn babies
A research carried out at six hospitals in the West Midlands, UK, is evaluating the use of pulse oximetry as a screening tool for congenital heart disease in newborn babies. Approximately three percent of infant deaths are caused by these significant heart defects and at the moment only less than half of the affected babies are identified by clinical examination, the current screening technique.
Close to baby
Every young mother wants to be as close as possible to her newborn baby. The "Leipiziger Wanne", the "Leipzig tub", developed by German engineering company NEL, can fulfil this wish even more easily: The c-shaped bed consists of a transparent tub which can be moved across the mother's bed allowing her eye contact with the baby at any time.
Trial to raise awareness of gender and CVD
More women than men die of cardiovascular disease (CVD) every year, yet females receive only 33% of angioplasties, stents and bypass surgeries; 28% of implantable defibrillators, and 36% of open heart surgeries.
Sonographic Indications of Fetal Chromosome Abnormalities
"Genetic ultrasound" is a refined technique in prenatal diagnostics. It aims to estimate as accurately as possible and non-invasively, the individual risk of a fetal chromosome abnormality. In conventional prenatal sonography (malformation screening) conspicuous fetal malformations are searched for selectively; naturally chromosomal anomalies of the fetus cannot be detected in this…
Looking at a New Generation
Most babies are born healthy, but there is still a small risk for all women to give birth to a baby with some type of anomaly. Ultrasound has proven to be one of the most reliable procedures to prenatally diagnose some of these conditions. Ultrasound can be used during the entire pregnancy, but in the first trimester ultrasound examinations are, as a rule, used to exactly calculate the pregnancy,…
From head to toe
Without doubt, the B-mode imaging is the most important examination method in prenatal ultrasound. Well over 90% of detectable congenital anomalies can be recognised using the two-dimensional realtime imaging method. Hence, paramount importance is certainly ascribed to the quality of the B-mode image in an ultrasound system. In addition, other ultrasound modalities help us to considerably enhance…
Screening for Chromosomal Defects
Chromosomal abnormalities are major causes of perinatal death and childhood handicap. Consequently, the detection of chromosomal disorders constitutes the most frequent indication for invasive prenatal diagnosis. However, invasive testing, by amniocentesis, chorionicvillus sampling (CVS) or cordocentesis, is associated with a risk of miscarriage of about 1% and therefore these tests are carried…
The Non-Surgical Closure of Congenital Heart Defects
What is an “open foramen ovale”? The open foramen ovale medical abbreviation PFO for “patent foramen ovale”) is a usually small, only a few millimeter thick, membrane-covered slit in the septum between the atria of the heart. It is a remnant from human embryonic development that usually closes during the newborn period; however, in 10-25% of newborns a small opening remains that generally…
3D Vascular Imaging
Imaging of blood flow with colour Doppler sonography is an established method in prenatal medicine. Today, there are several techniques which offer colour visualisation whose quality is on a par with that of the B-mode. One example of such a technique is Advanced Dynamic Flow (ADF). Looking at two cases, we will describe the clinical use of ADF to visualise fetal vascular tumours. The quality of…
Vascular Imaging in Prenatal Medicine
The following two articles look at the advantages of a new ultrasound technique in prenatal diagnostics: Advanced Dynamic Flow (ADF). While the authors use ADF for different purposes - K. S. Heling applies ADF for general vascular imaging and R. Schmitz focuses on fetal liver tumours and a fetal aneurysm in the vein of Galen - they both arrive at remarkably similar conclusions. But read for…
Tissue Doppler Imaging of the Fetal Heart
In the last 25 years, fetal echocardiography has become established as an integral component of prenatal medicine. Structural heart defects are found in approx. 0.8% of all foetuses. They are consequently comparatively frequent and head the list of isolated fetal organ malformations. Routine screening of the four-chamber view and the outflow tract allows the experienced investigator to detect…
Notes on NOTES
Natural orifice transluminal endoscopic surgery (NOTES - a technique that could revolutionize minimally invasive surgery (MIS) by eliminating abdominal incisions - is slowly shifting from research on animal models to human patients.
27 th Annual Meeting of the German Society of Senology
This year´s congress of the German Society of Senology (June 21.-23. in Lübeck, Germany) will deal with latest developments in the diagnosis and therapy of breast cancer like screening and early detection methods or new diagnostic modalities.
3D/4D Imaging in Obstretics - Lifestyle or diagnostic tool?
3D technology is a groundbreaking modality in obstetric ultrasound. Nevertheless, there is no doubt that this diagnostic tool is but a omplement to high resolution 2D ultrasound in prenatal diagnostics.
Current aggressive IVF treatments put patients at risk
The Netherlands — In-vitro fertilisation (IVF) is an overly aggressive treatment and needlessly exposes childless women to substantial risks of complications and serious discomfort, according to researchers at the University Medical Centre, in Utrecht.
Where abortion isn't illegal, it should be safe and accessible
Each year about 46 million women in the world decide to have an abortion because of unwanted pregnancy. Half of them have no other choice but to access unsafe abortions, leading to the death of worldwide 70,000 women every year - including Europe. At least in areas where abortion is not illegal, this disgrace can be abolished by the access to safe abortions.
News • Anaesthesiology
Enhancing acute patient care
Dräger's Acute Care System is reported to be the first to offer a totally new approach to managing and delivering care across the entire acute care process - from emergency care to operating theatre, to critical care and neonatal care.
