ultrasound 復習
上野動物園でアジアゾウのウタイの妊娠が報告されました。ゾウの妊娠は開園してから初めてとのことです。
Tokyo’s Ueno Zoo reports first Asian elephant pregnancy
An Asian elephant at the Ueno Zoo in Tokyo is pregnant in a first for the zoo, which opened in 1882.
Zoo officials said the 18-year-old elephant, named Authi, is expected to give birth around June or July.
Only 10 births of Asian elephants have been reported in Japan, and this would be the first at the Ueno Zoo since it began keeping an elephant in 1888.
Born in 1998 in Thailand, Authi arrived at the zoo in October 2002 along with a male elephant named Artid as a gift from Thailand in celebration of the birth the year before of Princess Aiko, the first child of Crown Prince Naruhito and Princess Masako.
She showed signs of pregnancy after zookeepers made her stay together with the male elephant, now age 19, last October. What appears to be a fetus was observed using an ultrasound in July.
Asian elephants’ pregnancies typically take 21 to 22 months.
“We are really glad because we have been working on propagation for a long time,” said zoo official Mikako Kaneko. “Since an elephant’s pregnancy period is long, we want to take good care of her to let her deliver a baby safely.”
今回取り上げる単語は"ultrasound"です。
『ジーニアス英和辞典』第4版(大修館)で調べてみると、「超音波、超音、(医)超音波診断」とありました。
また、LDOCEを見てみると、"sound that is too high for humans to hear"や"a medical process using this type of sound, that produces an image of something inside your body"と表現されていました。
つまり、超音波の力を使って、内臓など、体内の状態を調べることが出来ます。
ここでは、超音波診断によって妊娠が確認されました。
因みに、超音波検査は医療以外にも、建築物の老朽化や欠陥などを調べるのにも使われているそうです。(Akim)
