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New ultrasound machine offers 
better diagnostics, a look at the future

Oak Ridge, Tenn., September 2005 – They tumbled out of the small examining room like clowns coming out of one of those silly cars – they kept coming and coming and coming.

And smiling. And laughing.

April Chittum and her husband, Wendell, were accompanied to April’s appointment with ultrasonographer Debra Kitts at Women’s Health Associates by members of both their families for a very special event.

Thanks to a new, state-of-the-art “volume ultrasound” system from GE Healthcare recently added to the Oak Ridge office, Kitts was able to introduce them to April and Wendell’s son, Justin Luke.

He’s due November 9.

“Ultrasound is widely recognized for its clinical use in obstetrics and gynecology,” said Dr. Charles Darling, founding physician at Women’s Health Associates.

“Volume ultrasound with real-time motion is a powerful tool that can help us detect anomalies in the fetus as well as problems related to a woman’s uterus and ovaries.”

The equipment will help improve the quality of healthcare in women’s health, gynecological, prenatal and other clinical applications, Darling explained.

“The Voluson730 Pro takes an image and ‘sees’ it in all dimensions,” he said. A special transducer produces video and still pictures.

“We are not dependent on position or movement to get good images,” he said, “and we can go back to the images to find appropriate planes, manipulating the three-dimensional images at will.”

Traditional ultrasound images are two-dimensional, forcing clinicians to create three-dimensional images in their minds.

The Voluson 730 system will allow Dr. Darling and his partner, Dr. Brad Carter, to see images in 3-D and in greater detail, in a safe and generally non-invansive way, when a 2-D diagnosis indicates suspected abnormalities that need to be more closely scrutinized.

Kitts agreed that one of the major benefits of the new equipment is the ability to store images so that different angles can be examined at a later date.

“It cuts scan time for the patient about in half, but it allows me to manipulate the images in all three planes after the visit. They can be retrieved and re-examined – not reimagined.”

Kitts said that one of the benefits for first-time or very young mothers is that the images help personalize the baby.

“When they see that 3-D image, the baby becomes real. That can change or improve behaviors that affect the baby’s health,” she said.

Darling cited the improved ability to study the developing infant’s heart, where most abnormalities occur, so that appropriate treatment can be planned and administered at birth.

And, while he was quick to praise the importance of visualizing the vascular tree and neural fluid, he also praised the personal benefit of rendering the fetal form in 3-D images.

“Seeing the baby, watching the sonographer turn the face in the image – the capabilities are astounding,” he said.

“While sonographers could dream about the resolution available in large diagnostic centers, those images are now available in the private office,” Darling said. “In addition to the benefits for our maternity patients, savings to gynecology patients come from being able to avoid exploratory surgery with better diagnostics in the office.”

“In a few years, this may be part of every gynecological exam,” Kitts acknowledged. “This technology levels the playing field, regardless of a patient’s size.”

And it can give a family like the Chittums a new picture of what a family can be.

Kitts is a certified ultrasonagrapher, and she and Darling have participated in several seminars specific to the new equiment and its capabilities.

Other members of the professional staff include nurse practitioners Kaye Bultemeier, PhD, RNCS; Barbara Petty, RNC, RD; and Leslie Stone, MSN, RNC. Sandi Crabtree is the office manager.

The practice moved to its Oak Ridge location in the Westmall Medical Park at 200 New York Avenue in July 1996. The health care providers enlisted the aid of interior designers to plan an inviting setting for their patients, using warm colors, home-style fabrics and original works of art.

Women’s Health Associates also has offices in Knoxville at 9330 Parkwest Blvd. Inpatient and outpatient hospital care is provided at Methodist Medical Center of Oak Ridge and Fort Sanders Parkwest Hospital.