title: Immediate and long-term effects of color Doppler ultrasound on myocardial cell apoptosis of fetal rats.
abstract: The objective of this article is to evaluate the safety of diagnostic color Doppler ultrasound (CDUS) on embryos by observing its effects on myocardial cell apoptosis of fetal rats. Pregnant Sprague-Dawley rats were divided into fetal group and neonatal group according to the sample-drawing time averagely and randomly, and each group was subdivided into control group and insonification group. The control group was sham-insonificated, and the insonification group was insonificated by diagnostic ultrasound (3.0 MHz, Tis = 1.8, MI = 1.6) for 30 minutes. The fetal rats' hearts were removed 24 hours after insonification and the neonatal rats' hearts were removed 10 days after birth. Apoptosis cells were detected with TUNEL (in situ terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated D-UTP nick end labeling), and ultrastructural changes were observed with transmission electron microscope. Myocardial cell apoptosis was significantly higher in the fetal insonification group than in the fetal control group (P < 0.05), and it was significantly higher in the fetal groups than in the neonatal groups (P < 0.05), but there was no significant difference in myocardial cell apoptosis between the neonatal groups (P < 0.05). Apoptotic changes of myocardial cells in the fetal insonification group were observed with transmission electron microscope, which showed margination, condensation of the nuclear chromatin, etc. It is concluded that apoptosis and ultrastructural changes could be induced if fetal rat's heart was irradiated continuously over 30 minutes by diagnostic CDUS, but this phenomenon would disappear after birth.
authors.affiliation: Department of Ultrasound Diagnostics, Tangdu Hospital, Fourth Military Medical University, Xi'an, China. jiahuaping@yahoo.com.cn
authors.forename: Huaping
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Jia
authors.forename: Yunyou
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Duan
authors.forename: Tiesheng
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Cao
authors.forename: Baishan
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.forename: Faqin
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Lv
authors.forename: Lijun
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Yuan
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D017209:Apoptosis / Q000528:radiation effects*; D018618:Echocardiography, Doppler, Color; D005260:Female; D005318:Fetal Heart / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000196:embryology / Q000648:ultrastructure; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D020287:In Situ Nick-End Labeling; D008297:Male; D018613:Microscopy, Confocal; D046529:Microscopy, Electron, Transmission; D009206:Myocardium / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D011247:Pregnancy; D011897:Random Allocation; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D012449:Safety; D013997:Time Factors; D014465:Ultrasonics; D016216:Ultrasonography, Prenatal / Q000379:methods*