Version 1
: Received: 3 June 2019 / Approved: 4 June 2019 / Online: 4 June 2019 (12:56:37 CEST)
How to cite:
Moammar, H.; Sulayman, R. Is Excessive Prenatal Ultrasonography a Risk Factor for Autism? A Literature Review. Preprints2019, 2019060030. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints201906.0030.v1
Moammar, H.; Sulayman, R. Is Excessive Prenatal Ultrasonography a Risk Factor for Autism? A Literature Review. Preprints 2019, 2019060030. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints201906.0030.v1
Moammar, H.; Sulayman, R. Is Excessive Prenatal Ultrasonography a Risk Factor for Autism? A Literature Review. Preprints2019, 2019060030. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints201906.0030.v1
APA Style
Moammar, H., & Sulayman, R. (2019). Is Excessive Prenatal Ultrasonography a Risk Factor for Autism? A Literature Review. Preprints. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints201906.0030.v1
Chicago/Turabian Style
Moammar, H. and Rabi Sulayman. 2019 "Is Excessive Prenatal Ultrasonography a Risk Factor for Autism? A Literature Review" Preprints. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints201906.0030.v1
Abstract
For the past several decades, abdominal prenatal ultrasonography has been the most significant technology in obstetrics with a long-established application. However, the frequency, exposure time, thermal and cavitation exposure indices, and increased acoustic output of the ultrasonic waves may be harmful to the embryo/fetus and might increase susceptibility to Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). The increase in the prevalence of ASD is associated with an affluent ethnicity, high socioeconomic status, and high parental education where prenatal ultrasonography is readily available and affordable. Enhanced biophysical adverse effects may link the analogous increase in prenatal ultrasonography and autism, and prenatal ultrasonography may emerge as a risk factor for autism. Radiography usage provides historical evidence for this fact: the predominant past opinion was that exposure to X-rays during pregnancy caused no significant risk to a fetus. However, the association between X-ray exposure and childhood leukemia was only established 40 years after X-ray use began. This review focuses on excessive PUS usage and ASD development. Public Abstract Advancements in medical technology over the past several decades have made prenatal ultrasound more frequently accessible to expecting mothers during their pregnancy, especially for the affluent. A parallel development in health care is the increase in autism diagnoses (Autism Spectrum Disorder, or ASD) in children of affluent families. There is a general lack of studies of the impact of prenatal ultrasound on fetuses, especially around varying attributes such as frequency, duration of exposure, and thermal and cavitation indices. There is also a historical precedent set, where exposing fetuses to X-rays was not found to be harmful until it was linked to the development of childhood leukemia decades later. This paper seeks to establish a need to further study these attributes of prenatal ultrasound overuse and their possible impact on a developing fetus, with a special focus on the occurrence of Autism.
Medicine and Pharmacology, Pediatrics, Perinatology and Child Health
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Received:
14 July 2019
Commenter:
Layla alsamani
The commenter has declared there is no conflict of interests.
Comment:
I agree with the study, however I just wish I was aware of US side effect on the fetus at the time of my pregnancy. I was having US almost every two weeks throughout my pregnancy. Now my daughter is very irritated most of the time, throws tantrums frequently, needs help in math and most subjects at school. Thank you Dr Moammer for bringing this up as I always blamed my self for these issues. As a society we should all be aware of the side effects of US during pregnancy. Many thanks,
The commenter has declared there is no conflict of interests.
Comment:
Before you draw too many conclusions that may be not justified, please have a look at the situation in the Netherlands. The Netherlands are most probably the country with the lowest number of prenatal ultrasonography investigations per mother in the western world; "Baby TV" does not exist there (I worked for five years as a neuroscientist in the Netherlands and served as senior author of the article titled "Neuropathological findings in autism" (Brain 2004;127:2572-2583). Co-author of this article was Prof. Herman van Engeland, at that time the most prominent autism researcher in the Netherlands (and one of the most respected autism researcher worldwide). Fact is that the incidence of autism in the Netherlands is (to my knowledge) not different from the incidence in other countries in the western world.
The commenter has declared there is no conflict of interests.
Comment:
Great paper and places a concern regarding excessive ultrasounds of the fetus; however, comment # 3 speaks against this hypothesis. Are there any comparative incidences of autism in the Netherlands vs USA?
Melvin R Hayden, MD
University of Missouri School of Medicine
Columbia, Missouri USA
Commenter: Muain Haseeb
The commenter has declared there is no conflict of interests.
بالتوفيق.
Dr. Muain Haseeb
Commenter: Birlanti Nabulsi
The commenter has declared there is no conflict of interests.
Commenter: Layla alsamani
The commenter has declared there is no conflict of interests.
Commenter:
The commenter has declared there is no conflict of interests.
Commenter:
The commenter has declared there is no conflict of interests.
Melvin R Hayden, MD
University of Missouri School of Medicine
Columbia, Missouri USA