BEWARE! Ultrasound scans may disrupt fetal brain development

[Guest guest]

This is really nice to know now....considering I got 3 ultrasounds with my

baby 7 months ago....WITH a normal pregnancy, because they lost my records

and he was a week late...ah, well.....what I didn't know then!

 

Erin

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

I read information about this over a year ago when daughter-in-law was

pregnant. Did it stop here? Are you kidding?

 

 

17:56 10 December 01

Ian Sample

 

Ultrasound examinations may disrupt normal brain development in unborn

babies, say Swedish scientists. They have urged mothers-to-be to avoid

unnecessary ultrasonic scans, but not cancel routine examinations.

 

" Ultrasound is misused at times, " says Helle Kieler of the Karolinska

Institute in Stockholm, Sweden. " There are a lot of ultrasound examinations

performed which are not needed. "

 

Some mothers even seek videos of ultrasonic scans just to keep as

mementoes, says Francis Duck, chairman of the European Committee for

Medical Ultrasound Safety at the Royal United Hospital in Bath, UK.

Kieler's team studied a group of Swedish men born between 1973 and 1978.

Nearly 7000 had received ultrasonic scans in the womb, while 170,000 had

not. Kieler found that of the men born between 1976 and 1978 who had

ultrasonic scans in the womb, 32 per cent more than expected were

left-handed. In an average population, around nine per cent of men are

left-handed.

 

The scientists took account of factors such as premature birth, birth

weight and maternal age, but admit that they cannot rule out post-natal

environmental influences for the effect they found.

 

The results suggest that some men who genetically would have been expected

to be born right-handed had actually grown up to be left-handed. Kieler

says this could be due to a disruption of their brain development in the

womb: " It's commonly known among neuropsychiatrists that right-handed

people can become left-handed by slight damage to the brain. "

 

Wider window

 

She says it is significant that the effect was only found in men born in

1976 and later. That year, it became common in Sweden for expectant mothers

to have two ultrasonic scans - one after 17 weeks of pregnancy and another

after 37 weeks.

 

Currently in the UK, women typically have one or two ultrasonic scans

during pregnancy, although more can be recommended to track a particular

condition in the fetus.

 

In a study published in 1999, Kieler found that handedness of girls was not

affected by ultrasound. The difference, she says, could be down to the way

the brain develops in each sex.

 

" Brain development in males takes place over a longer period compared with

the female, so there's a wider window for external factors to have an

effect, " she says.

 

Vibrating bubbles

 

How ultrasound could affect the brain is still a mystery though. Kieler

suspects that a process called cavitation - where small bubbles in the body

fluids vibrate in the ultrasonic waves - could influence brain development.

 

" In the early stage of pregnancy, neurons migrate from the centre of the

brain and this could be disturbed by ultrasound, maybe by cavitation, " she

says.

 

" This is a big gap in our knowledge, " says Duck. " If ultrasound is having

this effect, we have to take it seriously, but right now, we just don't

know what is going on. "

 

Duck adds that ultrasonic scans are needed to track fetal development and

to check for abnormalities. " It would be inappropriate for people to start

cancelling their appointments, but this ought to act as a real stimulus for

more work on this, " he says.

 

Journal reference: Epidemiology (vol 12, p 618)

17:56 10 December 01

 

 

newscientist.com

 

 

 

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