Gray Scale Ultrasonography in the Evaluation of Hydrocephalus and Associated Abnormalities in Infants

Morphometry of the Second Trimester Fetal Brain

“…Recently with the use of greatly improved ultrasound (real-time) machines there is a great interest and a need to decribe fetal cra nial anatomy in order that accurate cepha lometric measurements are made to facilitate the diagnosis of cranial anatomical abnor malities [24][25][26][27], There is therefore a need for accurate data to evaluate the ultrasonic ap pearance of the developing fetal brain. Re searchers have used atlases and diagrams of the brain for that purpose [28][29][30][31],…”

Ultrasound Control of Progressive Hydrocephalus in Infancy

“…The possibility of examining the cerebral ventricles and brain struc tures of neonates and young infants through the anterior fontanelle which is a bone-free area then seemed self-evident [2,4,5,12,13,29,30], A crosssectional picture with far greater detail becomes possible through the multifocal compound scanning method which also gives an anatomic macroscopic cross-sectional depiction [3,6,16,18], With the computeraided link-up of several transducer heads it is possible to examine the intracranial cavity of children older than two, but since the skull bone refracts the majority of the acoustic energy the pictures contain less detail even if a water bag is used [10,12], As far as the cerebral ventricles and cerebral structures are concerned, the accuracy of the echotomograph examinations show good coincidence to CT examination results [3, 12. 15, 16, 19], The method is particularly suitable for examining hydrocephalus [2, 4.…”

Gray Scale Ultrasound Studies in Neonatal Infants with Malformation of the Brain

“…This ability of ultrasound to demonstrate intracranial anatomy is at present unique to the neonate, since as the child matures the skull vault thickens and becomes relatively impervious to the ultrasound beam. Ultrasound has been shown capable of demonstrating not only the anatomy but also intracranial pathology in the neonate, including intra cerebral hemorrhage, posthemorrhagic hydrocephalus, the assessment of progression and of arrested hydrocephalus following shunt procedures, and the detection of subdural and extradural collections [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][21][22][23][24], Although scanning through the fontanellesand open sutures has been more recently suggested as the technique of choice for examination of the periventricular area [25,26], in particular with a view to assessing germinal matrix hemorrhage and posthemorrhagic hydrocephalus, such an approach provides only a limited window to the remainder of the intra cerebral structures; in particular the frontal lobes, the occipital lobes, and the posterior fossa are not well imaged. The use of the axial plane provides images of comparable anatomical section to those produced by CT.…”

“…Diagnostic ultrasound is a safe noninvasive technique utilising low energy ultrasonic waves that has been reported by others to be useful in the evaluation of infants with hydrocephalus and associated intracerebral abnormalities [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9]. Two-dimensional echoenccphalography utilizing an automated ultrasound machine (octoson) [10] was used in the present study to diagnose brain malformations in 3 of the infants admitted to an intensive care nursery; in the fourth the diagnosis was made by lineararray, real-time ultrasound alone.…”