IT is a routine part of pregnancy, allowing clinicians to detect fetal abnormalities and take steps to safeguard the health of both mother and baby.
Glasgow led the world in the research, development and implementation of ultrasound scans, largely due to the work of obstetrician Professor Ian Donald at the city’s Royal Infirmary.
Now that legacy will continue with the introduction of technology that experts say will make Scotland a world-leader in fetal medicine.
Mothers-to-be will benefit fromultra-high resolution scanning equipment that will allow cardiologists to detect heart abnormalities in the womb at an earlier stage and more accurately.
The country’s only accredited Consultant Fetal Cardiologist, Dr Lindsey Hunter, said the scanner will make an “incredible” difference to children affected by Congenital Heart Disease (CHD), the most common birth defect.
Every year in Scotland, 1 in 100 babies are born with heart defects, with many requiring life-saving and often multiple surgeries after birth
Glasgow Children’s Hospital Charity has been given £96,000 to fund state-of-the-art scanning equipment for Scotland’s national Fetal Cardiology Service, which is based at Glasgow’s Royal Hospital for Children.
As well as providing clinicians with more accurate pictures of structural problems with the heart, the equipment will also be used to pioneer new techniques in the treatment of CHD, putting Scotland at the forefront of an area of medicine which is seeing significant development.
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Dr Lindsey Hunter, Consultant Fetal Cardiologist, said: “The little hearts that we look at are about the size of a thumbnail, meaning that the structures within the heart are only millimetres in size.
“This new scanner will provide the highest level of detail to make sure we can give an accurate diagnosis and put the appropriate treatment plans in place to care for these unborn babies up until, and after birth.
“We’re proud that this new and enhanced equipment will make Scotland a leader in fetal medicine, allowing us to trial new techniques and ways of working to provide even better care for our families.”
“The fetal cardiology scanner will make an incredible difference to children in Scotland born with heart abnormalities.
“Our service exists not only to give a diagnosis, but to support families through the incredibly stressful and difficult journeys they face when an abnormality is detected.”
Funding for the fetal heart scanner was secured as a direct result of fundraising by employees at Barclays in Scotland, including the virtual Kiltwalk, skydives, 10k runs and marathons, which saw staff raising more than £100,000.
Scott Stewart, Head of Barclays Scotland, said: “I am proud of the generosity and kindness of colleagues who have gone above and beyond to raise funds for Glasgow Children’s Hospital Charity.
“Their efforts, with matched funding from Barclays, have translated into a lifeline for families and helped to give Scotland an important boost in a pioneering area of medicine.”
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Born in Scotland, Ian Donald (1910-1987) was Regius Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the University of Glasgow from 1954 to 1976.
He served as a Medical Officer in the Royal Air Force during the Second World War, when he was mentioned in dispatches and awarded (in 1946) an MBE for bravery.
Along the way, he became interested in the possibilities of adapting radar and sonar technology for medical diagnosis.
Early results of his ultrasonic research were disappointing and the enterprise was said to have been greeted with a mixture of scepticism and ridicule.
However, a dramatic case where ultrasound saved a patient’s life by diagnosing a huge, easily removable, ovarian cyst in a woman who had been diagnosed as having inoperable cancer of the stomach, made people take the technique seriously.
He worked with T G Brown of the scientific instrument makers Kelvin & Hughes to create the first diagnostic ultrasound machine, and in 1958, with Brown and John MacVicar, he published his findings in meical journal The Lancet.
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