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.
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.
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.
"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…
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,…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
UK - Cervical cancer could be aggravated by a hormone-like molecule - prostaglandin - found in semen, according to a team of scientists led by Dr Henry Jabbour at the Medical Research Council's Human Reproductive Sciences Unit.
Smiths Medical launched a newly range of advanced embryo replacement catheters for in vitro fertilisation.
Inhalation of anaesthetic laughing gas was blamed for the deformation of six babies born in the Leyenburg Hospital, The Hague. Report: Michiel Bloemendaal
Interview with Prof. Klaus Vetter MD, director of the Obestetrics Clinic at the Perinatal Centre, Vivantes Hospital Neukölln, Berlin, Germany.
Hospitals and fertility clinics across Europe are to be warned that safeguards must be implemented to prevent impostors gaining access to IVF treatment.
Dr Darius Jakubowski, a perinatal specialist and former senior physician at Holweide Hospital, works for three days a week at Holweide Hospital as a resident gynaecologist.
Poland - Many medical workers may soon be ethically challenged by a decision made in Europe's Court of Human Rights regarding a woman who had been refused an abortion there.