Three-dimensional ultrasound examination was performed in 204 patients with a fetal malformation detected by conventional ultrasound. The patients were examined between 13 and 40 weeks of gestation. The ultrasound equipment used was a Combison 330 and a Combison 530 (Kretztechnik, Austria) with an abdominal Voluson sector transducer (3.5/5 MHz) (Kretztechnik, Austria). This ultrasound system can provide a high-quality three-dimensional surface or translucency image of fetal structures similar to that of a photograph or an X-ray image within seconds without an additional expensive work-station. Of the 204 patients examined with three-dimensional ultrasound, this technique proved advantageous in demonstrating fetal defects in 62% (127/204). In 36% (73/204), the three-dimensional technique gave the same information and in four fetuses with a cardiac malformation (2%), the three-dimensional technique was disadvantageous, due to movement artefacts during data acquisition. The technical advantages and problems of this three-dimensional technique are demonstrated.
In a total of 618 pregnant women between 9 and 37 weeks' gestation, the fetal face was evaluated by two-dimensional and three-dimensional ultrasound imaging as part of a level III screening evaluation for fetal anomalies. A three-dimensional endovaginal probe (5 MHz) was used for examinations at between 9 and 15 weeks, and an abdominal three-dimensional probe (3.5 MHz) was used after 15 weeks. Three different three-dimensional image display modes were employed: (1) the orthogonal display; (2) the surface display; and (3) the transparent display. When we studied the three-dimensional orthogonal displays in a 125 cases evaluated by abdominal ultrasound, we found that the facial profile shown in the two dimensional image represented the true mid-sagittal profile in only 69.6% of the cases. In the remaining 30.4%, the profile view deviated from a true mid-sagittal section by up to 20 degrees in one or two planes. In a total of 25 facial anomalies detected by abdominal ultrasound, 20 were clearly demonstrated by both two-dimensional and three-dimensional technology. In the remaining five cases, three-dimensional ultrasound revealed or confirmed an additional defect or abnormality: a narrow cleft lip in an unfavorable position of the fetal face (n = 2), a unilateral orbital hypoplasia (n = 1), a cranial ossification defect (n = 1) and a flat profile in the presence of marked oligohydramnios (n = 1). When transvaginal scanning was used, there were cases in which a detailed surface image of the fetal face could be obtained as early as 9 weeks' gestation. Abdominal scanning routinely yielded high-quality surface images by 20 weeks. Three-dimensional ultrasound consistently displayed facial abnormalities with greater accuracy and clarity than conventional two-dimensional imaging. This particularly applied to chromosomal aberrations and syndromes associated with subtle facial abnormalities requiring a detailed evaluation. Not only does three-dimensional ultrasound help in appreciating the severity of a fetal defect, but it can also provide more convincing evidence of a normal fetus than conventional two-dimensional sonograms.
Uterine and ovarian size were measured in 765 pre- and postmenopausal women by transvaginal ultrasound. Of these, 263 (premenopausal, n = 155; postmenopausal, n = 108) were found to have neither uterine nor ovarian pathological findings. According to parity, premenopausal women were separated into three groups: nullipara, primipara and multipara. Postmenopausal women were separated into two groups according to years since menopause: < or = 5 years and > 5 years since menopause. In the premenopausal group, a parity-related enlargement in uterine size was observed between nulliparous and parous women. After the menopause, a significant reduction in uterine size and in the corpus-cervix ratio was observed. The reduction in uterine size was related to years since menopause. The endometrial thickness measured in the group of premenopausal women did not exceed 4 mm on day 4 and 8 mm on day 8 of the menstrual cycle; in the postmenopausal group, endometrial thickness did not exceed 5 mm (mean 3.6 mm). In the group of premenopausal women, no parity-related change in ovarian volume was observed. After menopause, there was an obvious reduction in ovarian volume. Between the two postmenopausal groups, there was a small but significant difference in ovarian volume.
We present the Auckland Layout Model (ALM), a constraint-based technique for specifying 2D layout as it is used for arranging the controls in a graphical user interface (GUI). Most GUI frameworks offer layout managers that are basically adjustable tables; often adjacent table cells can be merged. In the ALM, the focus switches from the table cells to vertical and horizontal tabulators between the cells. On the lowest level of abstraction, the model applies linear constraints, and an optimal layout is calculated using linear programming. However, bare linear programming makes layout specification cumbersome and unintuitive, especially for GUI domain experts who are often not used to such mathematical formalisms. In order to improve the usability of the model, ALM offers several other layers of abstraction that make it possible to define common GUI layout more easily. In the domain of user interfaces it is important that specifications are not overconstrained, therefore ALM introduces soft constraints, which are automatically translated to appropriate hard linear constraints and terms in the objective function. GUIs are usually composed of rectangular areas containing controls, therefore ALM offers an abstraction for such areas. Dynamic resizing behavior is very important for GUIs, hence areas have domain-specific parameters specifying their minimum, maximum and preferred sizes. From such definitions, hard and soft constraints are automatically derived. A third level of abstraction allows designers to arrange GUIs in a tabular fashion, using abstractions for columns and rows, which offer additional parameters for ordering and alignment. Row and column definitions are used to automatically generate definitions from lower levels of abstraction, such as hard and soft constraints and areas. Specifications from all levels of abstraction can be consistently combined, offering GUI developers a rich set of tools that is much closer to their needs than pure linear constraints. Incremental computation of solutions makes constraint solving fast enough for near real-time use.
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