Editor—Hayward is correct that readers will have examples of VOMIT (victims of modern imaging technology) of their own.1
Ours is prenatal diagnosis. During the past decade the numbers of parents made anxious before the birth of their baby by ultrasound “soft markers” has increased hugely. These, usually seen at the time of the routine 20 week gestation anomaly scan, are not abnormalities but normal variations in appearance which, if present, increase the risk, but are not diagnostic for, a chromosome anomaly such as Down's syndrome. There is no doubt that most fetuses with these markers will be normal babies and also that by reporting them more Down's syndrome babies are detected prenatally.2,3
The history of marker scanning shows a similar exponential rise in volume and accuracy of information acquired against a background of firstly increasing and then reducing invasiveness. Unique to fetal VOMIT is that the invasive tests (such as amniocentesis) may lead to the loss of a healthy fetus by miscarriage. We also have little knowledge of the long term effects of raised maternal stress hormones on the unborn.
Competing interests: None declared.
References
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