Original ArticlesRoutine Ultrasound Screening in Pregnancy and the Children’s Subsequent Neurologic Development 1
Section snippets
Methods
We conducted two studies, a randomized controlled trial during 1985–1987, and a follow-up study during 1995. The Ethical Committee of the Medical Faculty of Uppsala University approved both studies.
Results
In the screening group, 661 mothers did not respond or declined participation, leaving 1651 (71.4%) of 2312 screened children in the follow-up study. In the unscreened group, 711 did not respond or declined participation, leaving 1614 (69.4%) of 2325 children (Fig. 1). Before 19 weeks’ gestation, 1704 children were exposed to ultrasound and 1561 were not.
The responders were older than nonresponders (27.7 versus 27.0 years) and less often were smokers (26% versus 33%) compared with the
Discussion
No statistically significant differences in speech and motor development or behavioral disorders between children 8–9 years of age who had been exposed to ultrasound in early fetal life and unexposed children were found in this study, in agreement with the findings of Salvesen et al.10, 12The prevalences of delayed speech and motor development were slightly higher among scanned children than among unscanned children. An association between ultrasound and delayed speech was found in a previous
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Cited by (34)
First-Trimester Fetal Echocardiography: Identification of Cardiac Structures for Screening from 6 to 13 Weeks’ Gestational Age
2017, Journal of the American Society of EchocardiographyCitation Excerpt :To date, documented harmful effects of fetal ultrasound have been limited to animal data.36-38 Such findings have not been evident in human studies correlating fetal ultrasound exposure with childhood neurologic and developmental outcomes.39-44 A consensus from the International Society of Ultrasound in Obstetrics and Gynecology published in 2011 concluded that color Doppler should not be used routinely in the first trimester but should be reserved for certain clinical indications, for which a cardiac examination is an example.
Evaluation of the prenatally diagnosed mass
2012, Seminars in Fetal and Neonatal MedicineCitation Excerpt :This ability to detect fetal anomalies is also coupled with the relative safety of fetal ultrasound. To date, there has been no study that demonstrates any significant deleterious effect of ultrasound on the fetus.6 Long term follow-up on children exposed to fetal ultrasound also did not demonstrate any significant difference in overall school performance as these children became teenagers.7
Exposure to ultrasound in utero: Epidemiology and relevance of neuronal migration studies
2010, Ultrasound in Medicine and BiologyCitation Excerpt :In 1990s, results were published of two large follow-up studies of 7–9-year-old children born to women who participated in the randomized controlled studies of routine ultrasound in pregnancy in Norway and Sweden, respectively. These studies did not find any evidence of possible negative effects of exposure to diagnostic ultrasound in utero on postnatal neurological development (Kieler et al. 1998a; Salvesen et al. 1993a,b), vision and hearing (Salvesen et al. 1992a; Kieler et al. 1997), speech development (Salvesen et al. 1994), motor control, perception and school performance (Salvesen et al. 1992b). However, a possible association between ultrasound and nonright-handedness in boys was found as summarized in a meta-analysis of the two Scandinavian studies (Salvesen and Eik-Nes 1999).
Epidemiological studies on adverse effects of prenatal ultrasound-Which are the challenges?
2007, Progress in Biophysics and Molecular BiologyEpidemiological prenatal ultrasound studies
2007, Progress in Biophysics and Molecular Biology
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Financial support was provided by The Research Council of Dalarna; the Foundation of Astrid Karlsson, Uppsala University; and the Foundation of Medical Research and Evaluation in Dalarna in cooperation with Uppsala University.