This article is representing fat and obese women are fewer probable to be given a perfect interpretation from ultrasound screenings intended at identify fetal abnormality health this is a latest investigate reveal.

“We were asking the question, ‘Are birth defects less likely to be detectable with prenatal ultrasound in women who are overweight or obese, compared with women of normal body-mass index,’” said Dr. Jodi S. Dashe.

Dashe found, “that the detection of fetuses with major birth defects dropped significantly as maternal body-mass index [BMI] increased: a difference of at least 20 percent when women of normal body-mass index were compared with obese women.”

“It isn’t that ultrasounds are unreliable, but that with some types of patients it is certainly more difficult to visualize fetal anomalies,” said Dr. Catherine Y. Spong, chief of the pregnancy and perinatology branch of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development in Bethesda, Md.

“When I’m doing an ultrasound I’m trying to get as much information as I can about the baby,” she explained. “And some people are easier to do an ultrasound on than others. For example, if someone has a lot of scarring inside the tissue is thicker, and that can make the imaging more difficult. And if people are obese — including women with diabetes, who are not uncommonly overweight — you’re going to have to look through a lot more tissue, and that makes it more difficult to image.”

“Based on our findings, we would suggest that counseling be modified to reflect the limitations of ultrasound in women who are overweight or obese,” she said.

Spong agreed. “This difficulty presents itself while there has been a dramatic increase across the U.S. in terms of obesity and morbid obesity among reproductive-age women,” she said. “So this study provides physicians with some data on what the difficulty truly is.”