Skip to main content

Could There be a Link Between Prenatal Ultrasounds and Autism Spectrum Disorder?

Over the years there has been a lot of concern and focus on what causes autism. Some have speculated that autism is caused by a mutation in the amygdala (the emotion center of the brain), others that it is due to a disorder in the digestive track, and the most common theory may be that autism is caused by vaccines. There isn’t enough evidence to prove any of these theories correct, but could there be some merit behind the accusation that there is a link between autism spectrum disorder and prenatal ultrasounds?

This article caught my eye because I am currently studying to become an ultrasound technician. As I prepare to enter this field I wanted to make sure that my profession of choice isn’t causing any harm to the future parents and children that will be my patients. It is also important for me to know all the facts so that when parents come in with concerns I am able to provide them with sound information that will help comfort and educate them.

Ultrasound technology has drastically increased over the last few decades providing parents more detailed images of the fetus, placenta, and surrounding maternal organs, through the use of high-frequency sound waves. As the use of this technology has increased, so too have the diagnoses of autism, which sparked questions about a potential link.

A rigorous study was preformed to examine the merit of this supposed link. The study analyzed medical records of over 400 kids born at Boston Medical Center to see if there was an association between ultrasounds in the first or second trimester of pregnancy and development of autism. At the conclusion of this study it was found that children with autism did not experience more prenatal scans, or more ultrasound exposure, than children with typical development.  In fact, they actually experienced less exposure than the other children. This finding adds weight to earlier studies, suggesting that the use of high-frequency sound waves used in this type of imaging are not powerful enough to cause autism on their own. 

Pregnancy can be a very scary time for parents. Whether it's their first kid or their eighth there are so many things that could go wrong, and there are so many unknowns.Ultrasounds give parents a chance to learn about and see their baby, and I believe that these scans can ease a lot of unnecessary worrying. While it may not be comforting to know that the cause of autism is still unknown, I believe that it is comforting to know that you can look at your baby and learn all about it without a fear of harming it.

While this study didn't prove the cause of autism it did rule out another possibility which is a step in the right direction. I believe that this study offered a lot of useful information that can be used in future studies. Hopefully this study will help us finally discover the cause of autism spectrum disorder.

- DA

Comments

  1. UnknownApril 19, 2018 at 7:52 PM

    My question derives from Boston Medical Center's results on their study and how they didn't find much supporting evidence. I am very aware of the vaccination scare and how these alternative sources might have connections with autism. You mention that some speculate that this could be caused by a mutation in the amygdala. So, could autism simply be due to a chemical imbalance during development? And if so, could this potentially be treatable during the affected persons life? I understand that we don't have a definitive answer yet, but just a few interesting thoughts came to mind as I read. BDO

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownApril 24, 2018 at 9:28 PM

    I wonder what lead the Boston medical center to even conduct this study if it was significantly wrong, not saying that every expirement will prevail but I want to know why this intrgiued them. Was it because ther may possible be radiation rays given off during the screenings? What was the leading question to delvelop this hypothesis so that we get more background information on what was their train of thought. - AA

    ReplyDelete
  3. UnknownApril 26, 2018 at 2:08 AM

    What exactly leads to the development of autism? Is it a mutation that occurs during the meiotic division of the parental cells or is it a mutation that occurs during gestation? I'm curious to see what really leads to autism since there have been so many hypothesis but nothing has really been proven yet. - K.G.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Kill The Pain But Not The Patient

               Opioid’s are a serious problem that according to Edward Bilsky, an opioid pharmacologist and provost at Pacific Northwest University of Health Sciences, can potentially be eliminated. Opioid addiction is a problem that needs to be faced as soon as possible. Utah has many different ads that are sure to be seen driving on the freeway, but we are not the only state that has an issue. Many people have died and many more will continue to die “In 2015, 2 million Americans suffered from prescription opioid addiction, and more than 33,000 died of an opioid overdose” (pg. 44) There is a solution to the problem at hand.               In Jonathon Keats’ article, building a better Painkiller, Christopher Stein stumbled upon something that would change the way that opioids are researched. He noticed that among rats an inflamed leg would be numb to the effects of touch, but anot...
22 comments
Read more

Cell phones and Cancer?

Some recent studies are calling us to be more cautious about our cell phone usage. There have been some studies on lab rats over the last two years that have started linking cell phone usage to higher cancer rates. Basically what the experiment was, Scientists exposed a bunch of lab rats to about the same amount of RF radiation (Radio Frequency, the kind of radiation cell phones use to communicate with cell towers) cell phones and wireless routers and basically all of our modern internet devices, expose us to. Long story short the Rats had a noticeably higher rate of schwannomas, and cancer in glial cells than regular non-exposed rats.  There were some other really cool findings from the study too. For example only Male lab rats contracted Schwannomas (cancer of Schwann cells in nerve tissue) and only female lab rats were found to have glioma. (cancer in glial cells, cells that help brain cells) They also found higher levels of other types of cancer such as skin cancer, prostat...
11 comments
Read more

Stem Cell Research and its Importance

Over the last few years there has been lots of research done regarding stem cell research, to regenerate and fix damaged organs in the body. With the help of stem cell research there has been much discovered about the body in general which helps to advance the cause of medicine helping to finding cures and treatments for different diseases and disorders. To show some of the research I am writing this blog post on, “Targeted Repair of Heart Injury by Stem Cells Fused with Platelet Nanovesicles.”             I have chosen this paper because it illustrates different discoveries scientist have had while finding a way to potentially help stem cells to regenerate cardiac tissue following a myocardial infarction or a heart attack. Through the course of this paper, Junnan Tang and the other scientists he was working with talked about one of the hardest issues regarding cardiac stem cells which is the fact that they have a hard time impla...
4 comments
Read more