High-tech ultrasound shows color, moving images before birth.(Voluson ultrasound system from GE Medical Systems)

2003 JAN 2 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Parents anxious to see images of their unborn children are used to seeing a grainy, black and white picture from the doctor's office.

But thanks to new technology in ultrasound, patients at Rowan OB/GYN Associates in Salisbury can now see color, real-time video of their children before birth.

"This is brand-new technology," said Lisa Grana, an obstetrician and gynecologist at Rowan OB/GYN Associates who practices at Rowan Regional Medical Center in Salisbury. "When you are looking at the fetus (with the new Voluson ultrasound system made by GE Medical Systems), you can actually see the features of the face. That's very exciting for the parents."

Rowan OB/GYN's new ultrasound system, one of the first sold by GE in the state, gives patients and physicians three-dimensional images in real time. Known as Real Time 4D Ultrasound, the technology is a powerful tool that can aid physicians studying the fetus' motion, behavior, and surface anatomy. The ultrasound shows the fetus from all sides and constantly updates the image to show movement.

Ultrasound is a safe and generally non-invasive way for physicians to see inside the human body. The new GE ultrasound processes four times as much digital data as conventional ultrasound systems, which allows it to provide more detailed images.

The system can be used in areas other than obstetrics - it has applications for abdominal, vascular, gynecology, neonatal, urology, transcranial and other patients. It gives parents-to-be a pretty picture of their baby, but it also provides physicians with better diagnostic capabilities and patients with images they can understand more easily.

"The system is going to allow us to have a more accurate diagnosis of medical problems in a fetus, and medical problems in women who are pregnant, as well as those who are not," Grana said. "In the fetus, we can evaluate the face in greater detail to look for such ...