Preterm labour was more than doubled in the ultrasound group 52 percent compared with 25 percent in the controls. Although the numbers were small the difference was unlikely to have emerged by chance. It revealed twenty miscarriages after sixteen to twenty weeks in the screened group and none in the controls. There were sixteen perinatal deaths of normally formed infants in the Doppler group compared with four in the standard care group. It is not only pregnant patients who are at risk, however.
Physiotherapists use ultrasound to treat a number of conditions.
Also, the risk of spontaneous abortions occurring after the tenth week was significantly increased for deep heat therapies given for more than five hours a week and ultrasound more than ten hours a week. The Saari-Kemppainen study also revealed the lack of value in early diagnosis of placenta praevia. When it came to delivery, there were only four. Interestingly, in the unscanned group there were also four women found at delivery to have this condition. All the women were given caesarean sections and there was no difference in outcomes between the babies.