Sonicaid Ltd was a medical electronics company headquartered in West Sussex best known for its range of Doppler fetal monitors. The company also developed early ultrasound scanners. The word "Sonicaid" is in generic use for Doppler fetal monitors. Sonicaid is now a registered trademark of Huntleigh Healthcare. [1]
Sonicaid developed a range of fetal monitors, notably the portable Doppler ultrasound products D102, D104 ("Pocket Sonicaid", winner of a Design Council Award for medical equipment in 1976 [2] ), D205 [3] [4] and D206 which provided audible output of fetal heart sounds. The original design was due to Frederick (Doug) Fielder who was Sonicaid's medical research director. [5] [6] [7] [8]
The FM series products used both ultrasound and ECG to provide continuous monitoring (recorded on paper charts), enabling clinical interpretation of changes in fetal heart rate during contractions. [9] The FM3R [10] received U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval in 1977 [11] and one of these instruments is displayed at the Science Museum, London [12] (the "machine that goes ping" in The Meaning of Life is identifiable as this model).
Sonicaid Ltd was involved in an early venture in the development of a 3D multiplanar scanner in the mid-1970s, [13] building on the pioneering obstetric ultrasonography work by Prof Ian Donald and colleagues. [14] They also developed the Sonicaid RTS5200 Real Time Scanner which was used in hospitals for obstetric applications.
Sonicaid Ltd was based in Bognor Regis in the 1970s [15] with a unit in Livingston, Scotland, and in Chichester in the 1980s. The company was acquired in 1987 by Oxford Instruments and developed the product range further [16] as "Oxford Sonicaid".
Obstetrics is the field of study concentrated on pregnancy, childbirth and the postpartum period. As a medical specialty, obstetrics is combined with gynecology under the discipline known as obstetrics and gynecology (OB/GYN), which is a surgical field.
Medical ultrasound includes diagnostic techniques using ultrasound, as well as therapeutic applications of ultrasound. In diagnosis, it is used to create an image of internal body structures such as tendons, muscles, joints, blood vessels, and internal organs, to measure some characteristics or to generate an informative audible sound. The usage of ultrasound to produce visual images for medicine is called medical ultrasonography or simply sonography, or echography. The practice of examining pregnant women using ultrasound is called obstetric ultrasonography, and was an early development of clinical ultrasonography. The machine used is called an ultrasound machine, a sonograph or an echograph. The visual image formed using this technique is called an ultrasonogram, a sonogram or an echogram.
Echocardiography, also known as cardiac ultrasound, is the use of ultrasound to examine the heart. It is a type of medical imaging, using standard ultrasound or Doppler ultrasound. The visual image formed using this technique is called an echocardiogram, a cardiac echo, or simply an echo.
Obstetric ultrasonography, or prenatal ultrasound, is the use of medical ultrasonography in pregnancy, in which sound waves are used to create real-time visual images of the developing embryo or fetus in the uterus (womb). The procedure is a standard part of prenatal care in many countries, as it can provide a variety of information about the health of the mother, the timing and progress of the pregnancy, and the health and development of the embryo or fetus.
Shigeo Satomura was a Japanese physicist credited with introducing the ultrasonic Doppler techniques to practical medical diagnostics in the 1950s. These techniques made possible non-invasive monitoring of blood flow in the human body.
Ian Donald was an English physician who pioneered the diagnostic use of ultrasound in obstetrics, enabling the visual discovery of abnormalities during pregnancy. Donald was born in Cornwall, England, to a Scottish family of physicians. He was educated in Scotland and South Africa before studying medicine at the University of London in 1930, and became the third generation of doctors in his family. At the start of World War II, Donald was drafted into the Royal Air Force as a medical officer, where he developed an interest in radar and sonar. In 1952, at St Thomas' Hospital, he used what he learned in the RAF to build a respirator for newborn babies with respiratory problems.
Postterm pregnancy is when a woman has not yet delivered her baby after 42 weeks of gestation, two weeks beyond the typical 40-week duration of pregnancy. Postmature births carry risks for both the mother and the baby, including fetal malnutrition, meconium aspiration syndrome, and stillbirths. After the 42nd week of gestation, the placenta, which supplies the baby with nutrients and oxygen from the mother, starts aging and will eventually fail. Postterm pregnancy is a reason to induce labor.
3D ultrasound is a medical ultrasound technique, often used in fetal, cardiac, trans-rectal and intra-vascular applications. 3D ultrasound refers specifically to the volume rendering of ultrasound data. When involving a series of 3D volumes collected over time, it can also be referred to as 4D ultrasound or real-time 3D ultrasound.
Maternal–fetal medicine (MFM), also known as perinatology, is a branch of medicine that focuses on managing health concerns of the mother and fetus prior to, during, and shortly after pregnancy.
Cardiac monitoring generally refers to continuous or intermittent monitoring of heart activity to assess a patient's condition relative to their cardiac rhythm. Cardiac monitoring is usually carried out using electrocardiography, which is a noninvasive process that records the heart's electrical activity and displays it in an electrocardiogram. It is different from hemodynamic monitoring, which monitors the pressure and flow of blood within the cardiovascular system. The two may be performed simultaneously on critical heart patients. Cardiac monitoring for ambulatory patients is known as ambulatory electrocardiography and uses a small, wearable device, such as a Holter monitor, wireless ambulatory ECG, or an implantable loop recorder. Data from a cardiac monitor can be transmitted to a distant monitoring station in a process known as telemetry or biotelemetry.
A Doppler fetal monitor, informally known as sonicaid, is a hand-held ultrasound transducer used to detect the fetal heartbeat for prenatal care. It uses the Doppler effect to provide an audible simulation of the heart beat. Some models also display the heart rate in beats per minute (BPM). Use of this monitor is sometimes known as Doppler auscultation. The Doppler fetal monitor is commonly referred to simply as a Doppler or fetal Doppler. It may be classified as a form of Doppler ultrasonography.
Peter Neil Temple Wells was a British medical physicist who played a major role in the application of ultrasound technology in medicine.
Mechanical index (MI) is a unitless ultrasound metric. It is defined as
ADAC Laboratories was a Silicon Valley medical device company specialising in nuclear medicine gamma camera manufacturing and associated nuclear medicine processing computers and software. It was originally located at 10300 Bubb Road, Cupertino, California, 95014, then as the company expanded moved in turn to the following locations. 4747 Hellyer Avenue, San Jose, CA 951, then 255 San Geronimo Way, Sunnyvale, CA, then from ~1993, 540 Alder Drive Milpitas, CA 95035. Although most people called the company ADAC or adaclabs, the name ADAC was an acronym of Analytical Development Associates Corporation. It was incorporated in California on October 14, 1970.
Shantou Institute of Ultrasonic Instruments Co., Ltd (SIUI) is China's biggest manufacturing base of ultrasound with longest history. SIUI goes through a technology development of A-B-C-D-E. Each step has driven the industry progress in China. A: A mode ultrasound equipment. B:B mode ultrasound imaging equipment. C:Color Doppler. In 1997, SIUI manufactured its first color Doppler system Apogee 800.D:Real-time 3D/4D ultrasound. In 2008, SIUI developed the real-time 3D/4D technology, and released a series of real-time 3D/ 4D color Doppler systems. E: Elastography.
Doppler ultrasonography is medical ultrasonography that employs the Doppler effect to perform imaging of the movement of tissues and body fluids, and their relative velocity to the probe. By calculating the frequency shift of a particular sample volume, for example, flow in an artery or a jet of blood flow over a heart valve, its speed and direction can be determined and visualized.
Chorioangioma, or chorangioma, is a benign tumor of placenta. It is a hamartoma-like growth in the placenta consisting of blood vessels, and is seen in approximately 0.5 to 1% pregnancies. It is mostly diagnosed ultrasonically in the second trimester of pregnancy. Large chorioangiomas are known to cause complications in pregnancy, while the smaller ones are asymptomatic.
Charles Richard Whitfield FRCOG, FRCP(G) was a Northern Irish obstetrician and gynaecologist who was a pioneer of maternal-fetal (perinatal) medicine. His primary interest was in fetal medicine, a branch of obstetrics and gynaecology that focuses on the assessment of the development, growth and health of the baby in the womb. He was also an early proponent of subspecialisation within the fields of obstetrics and gynaecology, a practice that is common today.
Thomas Graham Brown was a Scottish engineer who was most notable for collaborating in the design of the first medical ultrasound machine along with the obstetrician and designer Ian Donald, a physician at the University of Glasgow and industrial designer and obstetrician John MacVicar.
Integra LifeSciences Holdings Corporation is a global medical device manufacturing company headquartered in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1989, the company manufactures products for skin regeneration, neurosurgery, reconstructive and general surgery. Integra artificial skin became the first commercially reproducible skin tissue used to treat severe burns and other skin wounds.