Can a normal ultrasound guarantee a normal baby?
Again, ultrasound will not detect all abnormal conditions. It will detect only structural abnormalities large enough to be seen. Smaller lesions will be missed. Moreover, medical condition changes with time; and if the condition has not developed sufficiently at the time of the exam it will not be detected. Hydrocephaly for example may develop late in pregnancy and will be missed at the time of the second trimester ultrasound. With all the hype and the cute baby pictures, it is easy to loose site of the limitations of the ultrasound. Obviously, the tool can only be as good as its operator. You will not get the same result from an untrained technician as from a well trained physician, for example. Indeed, a recent study (the RADIUS Trial) found that ultrasound in the community setting was dismal at detecting fetal anomalies – with all of 17 cardiac anomalies missed. Even in a tertiary center, of the 22 cardiac anomalies present, only 4 was detected by ultrasound. To help reduce this lim
