Ultrasound Viewers’ Attribution of Moral Status to Fetal Humans: A Case for Presumptive Rationality

Diametros ◽

10.33392/diam.1472 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 1-14 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Heidi M. Giebel

Keyword(s):

Cognitive Processing ◽

Cognitive Bias ◽

Moral Status ◽

Psychological Explanation ◽

Ultrasound Images ◽

Fetal Ultrasound ◽

True Story ◽

Normative Judgments ◽

Normative Implications

As several studies, along with a book and movie depicting the true story of a former clinic director, have recently brought to the public’s attention, fetal ultrasound images dramatically impact some viewers’ normative judgments: a small but non-negligible proportion of viewers attribute increased moral status to fetal humans and even form the belief that abortion is impermissible. I consider three types of psychological explanation for a viewer’s shift in beliefs: (1) increased bonding or empathy, (2) various forms of cognitive bias, and (3) type of cognitive processing involved. I consider the normative implications of each explanation, arguing that in each case the viewer’s judgment is presumptively rational.

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Motion blur invariant for estimating motion parameters of medical ultrasound images

Scientific Reports ◽

10.1038/s41598-021-93636-4 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Barmak Honarvar Shakibaei Asli ◽

Yifan Zhao ◽

John Ahmet Erkoyuncu

Keyword(s):

Image Quality Assessment ◽

Medical Image Analysis ◽

Main Idea ◽

Delta Function ◽

Motion Blur ◽

Ultrasound Images ◽

Medical Ultrasound ◽

Fetal Ultrasound ◽

Dirac Delta ◽

Motion Parameters

AbstractHigh-quality medical ultrasound imaging is definitely concerning motion blur, while medical image analysis requires motionless and accurate data acquired by sonographers. The main idea of this paper is to establish some motion blur invariant in both frequency and moment domain to estimate the motion parameters of ultrasound images. We propose a discrete model of point spread function of motion blur convolution based on the Dirac delta function to simplify the analysis of motion invariant in frequency and moment domain. This model paves the way for estimating the motion angle and length in terms of the proposed invariant features. In this research, the performance of the proposed schemes is compared with other state-of-the-art existing methods of image deblurring. The experimental study performs using fetal phantom images and clinical fetal ultrasound images as well as breast scans. Moreover, to validate the accuracy of the proposed experimental framework, we apply two image quality assessment methods as no-reference and full-reference to show the robustness of the proposed algorithms compared to the well-known approaches.

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Postnatal ultrasound follow-up in neonates with prenatal hydronephrosis

Diagnosis ◽

10.1515/dx-2020-0109 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 0 (0) ◽

Author(s):

Elham Kebriyaei ◽

Ali Davoodi ◽

Seyed Alinaghi Kazemi ◽

Zahra Bazargani

Keyword(s):

Ultrasound Imaging ◽

Maternal Education ◽

Left Kidney ◽

Ultrasound Images ◽

Fetal Ultrasound ◽

Renal Anomalies ◽

Cross Sectional ◽

Fetal Hydronephrosis ◽

Kidney Involvement

Abstract Objectives Renal anomalies are the most common fetal abnormalities that occur during prenatal development, and are typically detected by observing hydronephrosis on fetal ultrasound imaging. Follow-up with post-natal ultrasound is important to detect clinically-important obstruction, because many of the pre-natal abnormalities resolve spontaneously. This study aimed to evaluate the postnatal hydronephrosis follow-up rate, and reasons for non follow-up in affected neonates. Methods In this cross-sectional study all neonates born during a period of one year at Ayatollah Mousavi Hospital with hydronephrosis on fetal ultrasound imaging were recruited. All mothers were also given face-to-face information about fetal hydronephrosis and its postnatal outcomes, and follow-up with at least a postnatal ultrasound was recommended from the fourth day of their neonates’ birth until the end of the fourth week. The neonates were subsequently observed for one month to determine the postnatal ultrasound follow-up rate and to reflect on diagnostic test results, reasons for failure to follow-up, as well as causes of hydronephrosis. Results In this study, 71 cases (1.2%) out of 5,952 neonates had fetal hydronephrosis on prenatal ultrasound images. The postnatal ultrasound imaging showed kidney involvement in 18 neonates (25%), particularly in the left kidney (61.1%). Seven neonates had no follow-up at one month (10%). No significant relationship was found between lack of follow-up and the neonates’ place of residence (p=0.42), maternal education (p=0.90), number of siblings (p=0.33), or gender (p=0.64). Conclusions Postnatal ultrasound follow-up rate in these neonates with a history of fetal hydronephrosis was incomplete even though parents had been provided with education and advice at their birth time. Accordingly, it is recommended to perform postnatal ultrasound once neonates are discharged from hospitals.

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