3D Obstetrical Applications

Audio/Video Link For more info on this topic check out Dr. Schild's lecture from Medison's "Premier Evening" at FIGO 2000.
*requires RealPlayer - free download

Terry Dubose:  “I’m Terry Dubose, and we’re at FIGO 2000 in Washington, D.C.  We have Dr. Ralf Schild here who’s just completed a lecture with a live scan - a 3D video capture of an obstetrical exam.  I’d like for him to tell us a little bit about himself and his work - Dr. Shield.”

Dr. Schild:  “I’ve previously worked in Bonn in the Department of Prenatal Diagnosis and Therapy for the last four years, and most of the time I’ve done 3D ultrasound there in obstetrics and gynecology.

Terry Dubose:  “I know that the public has gotten a lot of information about pretty pictures and that sort of thing but medically and diagnostically, how do you see this benefiting?

Dr. Schild:  “The pretty pictures are nice information for the patient but they are by far not the most important as far as 3D ultrasound is concerned.  The most important thing to me is that you get additional information.  You get additional plus scanning imaging plane, you can get a good estimation of volumes, you can assess the fetal volume, and you can store that information.  You can work on that anytime later on which are basically the main advantages of the 3D scan.”

Terry Dubose:  “As far as fetal motion, how does that affect the image?  Do you have a protocol where you ask the mother not to eat sugar or anything like that?

Dr. Schild:  “No, we haven’t got a protocol about just eating sugar or not.  Sure, the more active a fetus is the more the 3D volume data acquisition is negatively affected so if the baby is nice and quiet and in a good position, that is a much better condition to have a 3D scan then the opposite.”

Terry Dubose:  “I know we’ve been doing the head circumference for a number of years now, do you see a volume being more accurate for dating and size and that sort of thing?”

Dr. Schild:  “We’ve done some studies on the size of the estimated fetal weight less than a week before delivery, and we found that taking the volumes into consideration gets a better volume estimate although this kind of investigation examination is more time consuming.  In my opinion, at the current time, you should still take all the standard measurements but it’s worthwhile measuring volumes and in the future to assess the value of measuring volumes.  There might be a chance that the traditional keck (kg) weight from this being replaced by new forms in the future.”

Terry Dubose:  “It’s perfectly logical that three-dimensional is going to lead to better information and better detail.  Dr. Schild, we appreciate your sharing this with us.”

Dr. Schild:  “It was a pleasure.”

Terry Dubose:  “I wish you good luck with your research.”

Dr. Schild:  “Yes, thanks a lot.”

Terry Dubose

:  “Thank you very much.”