(MedPage Today) – Some terms commonly used to describe observations seen on ultrasound during first-trimester pregnancies are outdated and should be replaced with more descriptive language, a multisociety panel of ob/gyns, radiologists, and emergency physicians determined.

Terms like “heartbeat” or “heart motion” should be replaced by “cardiac activity,” since cardiac development is gradual and the cardiac chambers are not fully complete by the end of the first trimester, according to Lori Strachowski, MD, of the University of California San Francisco, and colleagues on the panel convened by the Society of Radiologists in Ultrasound. (Read More)