RT Book, Section
A1 Malinger, Gustavo
A1 Monteagudo, Ana
A1 Pilu, Gianluigi
A1 Paladini, Dario
A1 Timor-Tritsch, Ilan E.
SR Print(0)
ID 1194694516
T1 Preface to the Fourth Edition
T2 Timor's Ultrasonography of the Prenatal Brain, 4e
YR 2023
FD 2023
PB McGraw Hill Education
PP New York, NY
SN 9781260136166
LK obgyn.mhmedical.com/content.aspx?aid=1194694516
RD 2024/04/20
AB Turning  the  pages  of  this  fourth  edition  of  Ultrasonography  of  the  Fetal  Brain,  several  thoughts  come  to  mind.  The  first  and  most  obvious  one  is  that  there  have  been  impressive  developments  in  the  field  of  fetal  neurosonography  in  recent  years.  The  second,  and  to  us  the  most  intriguing  one,  is  how  the  scope  of  the  research  in  this  area  has  changed  with  time.  In  the  beginning,  the  ambition  of  the  fetal  sonologists  was  a  simple  one:  to  recognize  neural  tube  defects.  Later,  it  became  clear  that  more  subtle  intracranial  anomalies  could  be  identified.  At  that  point,  it  became  clear  that  little  was  known  about  the  prognosis  of  many  of  these  conditions,  and  that  counseling  couples  was  a  very  difficult,  sometimes  even  impossible,  task.  The  intracranial  anomalies  that  were  detected  could  be  associated  with  significant  neurologic  compromise;  however,  at  the  same  time  they  could  be  completely  asymptomatic.  This  standoff  prompted  a  wave  of  studies  to  evaluate  the  postnatal  development  of  infants  diagnosed  with  abnormal  cerebral  anatomy  in  utero,  as  well  as  to  identify  the  sonographic  features  that  could  make  a  difference  in  their  outcome.  The  brain  is  in  many  ways  an  unexplored  organ,  and  sonologists  understood  that  not  only  was  long-term  follow-up  necessary  to  obtain  meaningful  data,  but  also  that  intellectual  function  cannot  be  measured  as  easily  as  blood  pressure  or  cardiac  output.  However,  the  wealth  of  data  that  continues  to  be  generated  by  these  studies  is  providing  a  significant  contribution  not  only  to  prenatal  diagnosis  but  to  the  entire  field  of  fetal  and  pediatric  neurology.  In  many  ways,  this  bootstrapping  process  (recognizing  anomalies  while  delineating  their  clinical  implications)  was  at  the  forefront  of  a  new  type  "backward  medicine,"  that,  for  good  or  bad,  is  here  to  stay,  as  the  side  product  of  the  widespread  use  of  diagnostic  imaging:  predicting  the  consequences  of  abnormally  shaped  organs  in  asymptomatic  individuals  the  complete  opposite  of  traditional  medicine.