No abstract

A statewide study to ascertain the number of ultrasound scans received by women in pregnancy, to identify the proportion having a scan at 16 to 20 weeks' gestation, and to establish where the scan at 16 to 20 weeks was performed was carried out between January, 1991 and June, 1992 in Victoria. Additional data were collected by midwives and entered on the perinatal morbidity statistics form routinely completed for all births. Of 52,319 women providing responses, 3.1% did not have a scan. Of the remaining 96.9% who had a scan, 73.5% were scanned at 16 to 20 weeks' gestation. Predictors of not having a scan were maternal birthplace and higher parity: previous perinatal death(s), and attendance at nonteaching hospitals predicted the opposite. Predictors of being scanned were location of hospital (country), maternal birthplace, higher parity and maternal age (< 20 years). Substantial differences in frequency and timing were found between hospitals attended. Factors associated with the pattern of scanning are not readily explicable in terms of risk of malformations or women's choices.

This research uses near-infrared spectrometric imaging to nondestructively locate and determine Low-Density Lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol that may serve as an in vivo marker for vulnerable atherosclerotic plaques. Vulnerable plaques are plaques prone, in the presence of an appropriate trigger, to events such as ulceration, rupture, erosion, or thrombus that can lead to an acute syndrome. A Nd:YAG-pumped KTP/OPO tunable near-infrared (NIR) laser system is used as a light source for the fiber-optic catheters employed in this research. The BEST algorithm is used to construct chemical-composition images of the intima of the aorta in test subjects in vivo. The long-term goal of these studies is to use NIR laser spectrometric assays of plaque performed with cardiac catheters in vivo to facilitate assignment of patients to specific drug or surgical interventions selected to match their individual vulnerable plaque characteristics.

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Human domination over nature is quite simply an illusion, a passing fancy by a naive species. It is an illusion that has cost us much, ensnared us in our own designs, given us a few boasts to make about our courage and genius, but all the same it is an illusion