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Dose-dependent Effect of Ultrasound on Fetal Weight in Mice

Division of Biological Effects, Bureau of Radiological Health, Food and Drug Administration, Rockville, Maryland.

Address correspondence and reprint requests to Dr. O’Brien: Bioacoustics Research Laboratory, Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Illinois, 1406 Green St, Urbana, IL 61801.

Abstract

Outbred non-Swiss albino mice (CF₁) were time-mated, exposed on the eighth day of gestation to 1 MHz continuous wave ultrasound, and examined on the eighteenth day of gestation. Seven exposure conditions (spatial average intensity versus exposure time) were employed for the 272 litters: 0 W/cm² (sham); 0.5 W/cm, 300 sec; 0.7 W/cm², 300 sec; 2.0 W/cm², 20 sec; 3.0 W/cm², 20 sec; 3.0 W/cm², 10 sec; and 5.5 W/cm², 10 sec. Relative to the sham group, every exposed group exhibited a reduced average fetal weight, ranging from 5.3 to 17.5 per cent, and the nonparametric Kruskal-Wallis one-way analysis of variance by ranks indicated that the average fetal weight varied significantly, at the 0.001 level, with exposure condition. In addition, a linear dose-effect dependence of exposure condition versus average fetal weight was observed, in which the dose parameter was defined as I²t, where I is the spatial average exposure intensity and t is the exposure time.

Key Words: Ultrasound • biological effects • fetal growth • fetal development • fetal weight • dose effect