We are almost at the end of memory lane, and those of you that have been on this journey from the start will now know that ‘A short History of the development of Ultrasound in Obstetrics and Gynecology’ by Dr Joseph Woo will be able to feed those hungry for more information!

Last time, I promised to discuss M-mode, which is put simply, able to register movement and is commonly used for cardiac work – as an example, M-mode will show heart valve movement.  A previous article discussing M-mode can be found by clicking here. Consequently, M-mode was also shown to be advantageous in assessing the foetal heart, particularly if the pregnancy was believed to be at risk.

Ultrasound imaging is now carried out as standard during pregnancy, ensuring that both mother and baby are looked after. As a consequence, machinists started to become trained before using a scanning machine, which helped to make sure that the correct assessment was carried out. Needless to say, the correct training is vital to ensure that the scan is carried out properly and the required information is collected. If you would like to find out more about being trained to use an ultrasound machine, please do not hesitate to contact us.

We are all familiar with technology changing the way we go about our daily lives. The majority of us possess a mobile phone, and alongside the increasing development of technology comes dramatic changes in design. Gone are the days when to own a mobile phone meant lugging a brick-sized piece of plastic in our bags – instead, we use phones that are thin and lightweight and can complete many more functions than their now obsolete ancestors. The same can also be said for ultrasound. It is due to technology that we are now able to retrieve greatly detailed images of the foetus from a routine scan, and many of us likely take this for granted. It is interesting to note however that the ability of ultrasonography to return 3D images was a concept that arose approximately thirty years ago, and as such is a relatively new addition to the world of ultrasound.

It is with this in mind that I would like to end our trip by speculating on what is next for the field of ultrasonography. It is more than likely that when ultrasonography was first utilised as a tool to visualise the foetus, scientists very quickly became aware of the benefits ultrasound could provide to the field of pregnancy. Rather than just providing the parents with a ‘snapshot’ of the foetus in the womb, ultrasound now has the ability to let prospective parents find out the sex of their child months before the birth, and aid in identifying any problems that may occur during gestation. In years to come, the images retrieved from ultrasound may become increasingly advanced – perhaps we will be able to obtain coloured images of the unborn foetus, or visualise the foetus much earlier in gestation? And what about veterinary ultrasound? As ultrasound imaging can be used almost universally, irrespective of the animal species or breed, this technique is advantageous to breeders, veterinarians, farmers and researchers wishing to learn more about a particular animal species. Those working in the veterinary species are now able to use scanning machines that have been specifically designed with the veterinary field in mind, such as the SonoScape A6v machine.

As our ultrasound trip reaches its conclusion, I believe that we can be certain of one thing – just as ultrasound technology is increasingly impacting on what we can find out in relation to human pregnancy, it follows that veterinary pregnancy scanning will not be far behind.