"For me as a doctor, this is the most amazing experience there is"

Dr. Roy Birnbaum has been treating pregnant women for many years, but this does not diminish the great excitement he experiences with an ultrasound examination. In the "Expert Clinic" podcast he explains why this examination is so amazing, and when it is important to perform it

Iris Cole

25/02/2022

Friday, 25 February 2022, 07:11 Updated: 07:50

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There is no woman who does not know the ultrasound test, certainly if she is pregnant, or has been in the past, but not everyone knows the story behind this test, and the amazing things that can be done with it.

Dr. Roy Birnbaum, a senior physician in the Ultrasound Unit for Obstetrics and Gynecology at Ichilov Hospital, was a guest on the "Specialist Clinic" podcast to explain everything there is to know about the common test.

"The ultrasound test is the most successful first date ever, this is the first meeting with the fetus. It is seen significantly in young couples with a first child, who do not know what to expect. You see the gleam in the eyes. Suddenly they recognize, and see the excitement," says Dr. Birnbaum, "Suddenly the concept of pregnancy becomes something tangible, and they are already imagining how he will be at home, how he will be on his hands, how he will scream and cry and so on."

The best first date in the world.

Ultrasound examination (Photo: Giphy)

He added that another point that really excites him is a test of "Couples who unfortunately in their previous pregnancy had a bad experience, had a pregnancy problem, and their expectations and excitement towards the current pregnancy, that only everything is fine now ... then the possibility of ultrasound to look at the fetus, And to tell them 'guys, there is a cute and healthy baby here and everything is fine', is an experience that for me as a doctor is one of the most wonderful moments in the profession - to be with them in this moment, most intimate and exciting, and see their fetus for the first time. .

This story begins sometime with the sinking of the Titanic

We all know the stories of the previous generation who knew nothing about their fetus until the moment it was born.

This reality has changed with the introduction of ultrasound into our lives, and it is good that it has.

This device, surprisingly, was not originally created for the healthcare field.

"Who did not shed a tear in the Titanic? This film tells the story of the sinking of the Titanic, which sailed at the beginning of the last century, and collided with a glacier that opened a hole in the belly of the ship and it sank in the middle of the night," says Dr. Birnbaum. No means of navigating the aquatic medium.

It was impossible to see what was happening underwater. "

He added that this dramatic drowning caused scientists to develop the sonar - something that could be seen in the aquatic medium around us. You can know the distance of the obstacle that brought the sound back from me. "This is exactly how the ultrasound works.

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"The ultrasound device fires a sound wave and listens for the reflections, and does it again and again, and from the sequence of these points it produces an image - at first it was of the seabed, and later of the fetus. Because the fetus is also a kind of obstacle We have this underwater world called the fetus in the womb. "

Dr. Birnbaum wants to emphasize that no one hears the sound waves of the ultrasound, so the test is very safe. "There is no radiation here, there are only sound waves here.

No X-ray radiation, no microwave radiation, just sound waves passing through, "he explained.

Allows to check the integrity of tiny organs.

Transducer and genius (Photo: ShutterStock)

It is important to note that although the ultrasound examination is only an imaging examination, today it is possible to produce images at a very high resolution, and this is possible thanks to the use of an advanced vaginal transducer.

"It's the same device as the device they put on the abdomen, it's the same idea, but they managed to minimize it to a smaller device, which can be gently inserted into the vagina with a lot of gel, and actually see very large resolution organs," Dr. Birnbaum explained, adding that this resolution Lets check the integrity of tiny organs, and say - chances are it's okay.

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When should an ultrasound examination be performed during pregnancy?

The first ultrasound should be performed at week 7-8, by which time it is already possible to verify that there is a pregnancy in the uterus, and the tiny heartbeats can be seen.

"When you look at a fetus the size of a rice grain, you can only learn that it exists, that there is a pulse - the first sign of the fetus' life - and that some embryos are in the womb, and that the fetus is not outside the uterus. This can be seen in the early stages.

" Occipital transparency, a test performed at about week 12. "The purpose of occipital transparency is to measure the fluid in the occiput of the fetus, there is always some fluid there, because women who have more fluid are at risk for having Down syndrome in the fetus.

The goal is to calculate the statistical probability of having Down Syndrome, "Dr. Birnbaum explained.

When there are signs of high risk, more invasive tests like placental abruption or amniotic fluid can be suggested and progress in diagnosis.

"When a patient reaches posterior transparency at week 12, it is possible today with the advanced technology of the high-resolution vaginal transducers to perform an initial assessment of the fetal organs, beyond the transparency itself. And tell the therapist ' "Benign is normal, and all this in week 12. And it gives peace and quiet in the system, and lowers the chance that the woman will say that she wants another test tomorrow because maybe something is wrong."

To watch the full episode:

Iris Cole interviews Dr. Roy Birnbaum about ultrasound tests in pregnancy (Walla system)

An early systems review is then performed, at weeks 14-16.

"In this test, the fetal systems are scanned. We look at the different structures, from the brain to the eyes, the tongue, the lips, the hands, to what is hidden between the legs, and this is the ideal plot to tell parents the sex of the fetus," Dr. Birnbaum described. -23, again looking at the fetal systems, but now the heart is bigger, and the brain different, it has completely changed, and structures have appeared that we have not seen before. Moreover, as the fetus grows there is more ability to see good details. So these reviews complement each other. Another opportunity to make sure that the fetus continues to grow, and meets expectations in terms of its growth. "

In conclusion, Dr. Birnbaum wants to emphasize that ultrasound has a wide range of findings. "And if God forbid there is something wrong, there are situations in which intrauterine treatments can be offered, in a few cases, and sometimes the genetic clarification can be extended."

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Tags

• Ultrasound

• Pregnancy

• Pregnancy tests