A Fresh look at Ultrasounds

Fresh look at ultrasound

The 2D imaging process of viewing an unborn baby has been the most widely used for longest period of time. In this imaging, the baby is viewed in layers to examine fetal growth and health. The 2D ultrasound is the best option for use in the early stages of pregnancy. These early 2D ultrasounds are often the time that the mothers find out the gender of the baby.

Most expectant mothers are very excited and anxious about the thoughts of having a 3D imaging session or gaining 3D image photos. Through 3D ultrasounds, the outside of the baby is viewed rather than layers.

The 3D ultrasound was first developed by Olaf von Ramm and Stephen Smith at Duke University in 1987.

3D ultrasound is a medical ultrasound technique, used during pregnancy, providing three dimensional images of the fetus. These images are captured rapidly and animated to produce a "4D ultrasound".

In 3D fetal scanning, instead of the sound waves being sent straight down and reflected back, they are sent at different angles. The returning echoes are processed by a sophisticated computer program resulting in a reconstructed three dimensional volume image of fetus's surface.

3D ultrasounds allow one to see width, height and depth of images in much the same way as 3D movies but no movement is shown. 4D ultrasounds involve the addition of movement by stringing together frames of 3D ultrasounds in quick succession.