An ultrasound is possibly the most exciting part of the pregnancy for the parents. Well why not, who doesn’t want to know how’s the little one doing inside, isn’t it? But ultrasound can be a serious risk for the foetus, says a new study. According to researches ultrasound exposure during the first trimester is linked to increased severity of autism.
Ultrasound In 1st Trimester Of Pregnancy Linked To Autism – Here Is What The Study Says
1. The study was conducted by professionals from the University of Washington’s (UW) Medicine school, UW Bothell, and the Seattle Children’s Research Institute. The researchers examined the variability of symptoms among children with suffered with autism. This study was published in the journal Autism Research.
2. Sara Webb, the lead author of UW Medicine researcher in psychiatry and behavioural sciences, said in a statement – “There has been a real struggle in why there are so many kids with autism,” she further added “Where does this disorder develop from? How do kids get autism? And the second question is why kids with autism are so different from each other? This study really looks at the second question. Within kids with autism, what are some of the factors that may result in a child having a good outcome or higher IQ or better language or less severity versus a child who maybe takes more of a hit and continues to struggle throughout their lifespan?”
3. The researchers derived data from over 2,644 families among 12 research sites in the US, this was done using the data from the Simons Simplex Collection autism genetic repository.
4. According to Sara Webb, the team of researches approached the research based on three aspects which explained the different symptoms displayed by autistic children. The three aspects are Genetic vulnerability, and then is the outside stressor (like ultrasound) and the last outside stressor which has to impinge on a child at a certain time.
5. According to the researchers, the research shows that the exposure to diagnostic ultrasound in the first trimester is directly linked to the increased autism severity. However the greatest link was found among those children who had certain genetic variations associated with autism. Around 7% of the children in this study were found to have those variations.
6. Sara Webb, who is a mother herself, said that she would not have ultrasound for herself during the first trimester unless there was any medical necessity. She said “If we can figure out this information in any other way, I would go with that,” she added “It’s always worth considering that when we do medical procedures, there are great benefits but also risk.”
7. The researchers said that there was no link found for the effects of ultrasound on the second and third trimester.
This is a scary bit of news isn’t it? In this era, medical procedures are advancing within a blink of an eye. Thanks to such researchers who actually open our eyes to see the associated risk which we either ignore or are otherwise unaware.
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