Lange (pret)echo’s misschien niet zo gezond voor de baby.*
Uit een studie met muizen blijkt dat echo's van 30 minuten of meer niet goed zijn voor de goede ontwikkeling van de hersencellen van de foetus. Dit wil nog niet zeggen dat dit ook geldt voor mensen daar zal nog verder onderzoek naar moeten worden gedaan.
Eerder onderzoek In Australië heeft aangetoond dat medische echo's geen duidelijke nadelen opleverden op baby's. Toch kan deze studie vrouwen overtuigen alleen medische echo's te laten uitvoeren. Deze gebruiken zeer lage geluidswaarden en duren niet langer dan 20 minuten.
Ultrasound
Might Affect Newborn Brain Development
If
studies on pregnant mice also apply to humans, exposing a pregnant mother to
ultrasound for over 30 minutes could adversely affect the baby's brain
development, say scientists from Yale University, USA. They found that some
nerve cells did not make their way to the correct parts of the developing brain.
You can read about this study in Proceedings of the National Academy of
Sciences.
The scientists said that their results call for further investigations in larger
and slower-developing brains of non-human primates and comprehensive
epidemiological studies in humans.
However, head researcher, Dr. Pasko Rakic, added that if he had a daughter and
she was pregnant he would still advise her to have an ultrasound for medical
reasons.
The scientists stressed that mice and humans are very different. Just because
baby mice seemed to be affected does not mean humans are. The period during
which cells migrate to specific parts of the developing pain is much longer for
humans than for mice. It is possible that 30 minutes of ultrasound has a much
bigger impact on a mouse's developing brain than a human's. In order to see what
the effect may be on humans we would need to carry out similar tests on animals
that are more similar to humans, the researchers said.
This study may persuade many doctors and pregnant women to carry out ultrasound
for medical reasons only, and not for entertainment.
There have been studies which showed repeat ultrasounds are safe for humans.
There was one in 2004, carried out in Australia, which included over 2,700
children. The children were followed up at the ages of 2, 3, 5 and 8 years. No
significant adverse effects were found.
Most ultrasounds on pregnant women do not last more than 20 minutes. Current
guidelines for pregnant mothers state that the ultrasound settings should be as
low as possible to get a diagnosis.
(Aug. 2006)