Toshiba America Medical System announced this week that researchers from the Fetal Cardiovascular Center at Eastern Virginia Medical School (EVMS) will be using the company’s Aplio 500 Platinum ultrasound systems as part of a new initiative to learn more about placental function.

The research is expected to cover microvascularization of the placenta, placental tissue elasticity, and placental calcification.

Alfred Abuhamad, MD, EVMS Mason C. Andrews professor and chairman of obstetrics and gynecology, and vice dean of clinical affairs, is leading the team, which received a $2.725 million grant from the National Institutes of Health.

“Through our research study, we hope to develop an algorithm that can potentially help predict late pregnancy complications in early gestation by using new, high-tech ultrasound software, provided by Toshiba,” Abuhamad said in a prepared statement. “Our study is designed to identify which ultrasound tools are best at determining women who will develop poor pregnancy outcomes and those who will not. If we have the ability to identify which pregnancies will have complications in the future through ultrasound, then we can address it early with interventions and therapies.”