Beryl Benacerraf, 73, Dies; Pioneered the Use of Prenatal Ultrasound - The New York Times

Dr. Beryl Benacerraf, a radiologist with an uncanny ocular consciousness who revolutionized the diagnosis of fetal abnormalities similar Down syndrome done the usage of ultrasound technology, died connected Oct. 1 astatine her location successful Cambridge, Mass. She was 73.

Her son, Oliver Libby, said the origin was cancer.

Dr. Benacerraf — who was a prof of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive biology and radiology astatine Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital successful Boston successful summation to having a backstage signifier — had struggled academically erstwhile she was young due to the fact that of what she yet determined was undiagnosed dyslexia.

Her aboriginal occurrence successful utilizing ultrasound images to observe congenital anomalies and gynecological disorders, she said, was tied to “the flip broadside of that full problem.”

“Pictures conscionable talk to me,” she said successful an interrogation for an oral past task for Barnard College, her alma mater. “I tin look astatine a representation and I tin spot the pattern. I tin spot things that cipher other tin see.”

Perhaps the astir notable merchandise of that quality was her find that a thickening of a spot of tegument astatine the backmost of a fetus’s neck, known arsenic the nuchal fold, was associated with Down syndrome and different chromosomal disorders.

Before Dr. Benacerraf conducted her research, screening for specified defects was mostly constricted to women 35 and older, those thought to beryllium astatine top risk, and conducted by amniocentesis, an invasive process that successful a tiny fig of cases tin origin miscarriage oregon different harm.

Her archetypal papers suggesting ultrasound’s imaginable for offering an effective, little invasive signifier of fetal screening — disposable to women of immoderate property — were published successful 1985. They were not warmly received.

“I was astir booed disconnected the signifier astatine respective nationalist meetings, and papers emerged discrediting my probe and me,” Dr. Benacerraf said successful an interrogation with the American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology published past year. “I was devastated, but that overmuch much determined to prevail due to the fact that I knew I was right.”

Her determination was vindicated: As ultrasound became a regular portion of prenatal care, truthful did measuring the thickness of the nuchal fold. The screening, which is present typically augmented by humor tests, was based connected her research.

Beryl Rica Benacerraf (pronounced buh-NASS-uh-raff) was calved successful Manhattan connected April 29, 1949. Her father, Dr. Baruj Benacerraf, a Venezuelan-born immunologist, aboriginal shared the 1980 Nobel Prize successful Physiology oregon Medicine for findings related to genetics.

Her mother, Annette (Dreyfus) Benacerraf, a homemaker, belonged to a salient French Jewish household that included the service skipper astatine the halfway of the contentious occurrence known arsenic the Dreyfus affair. Annette Benacerraf’s uncle Jacques Monod besides shared a Nobel Prize successful Physiology oregon Medicine, successful 1965.

The Benacerraf location successful Manhattan was a “French oasis,” Dr. Benacerraf said successful the 2021 interview. She was often asked to play the flute astatine meal parties wherever the guests included classical euphony luminaries and scientists similar Francis Crick, the British biologist who helped decipher the DNA molecule’s double-helix structure.

Beryl, an lone child, attended the backstage all-girls Brearley School successful Manhattan but, she said, struggled due to the fact that of her dyslexia. In an effort to header with it, she adopted a method of completing assignments arsenic soon arsenic she got them — a signifier she would employment passim her life.

“This wont keeps maine organized and prevents maine from taking connected much tasks than what I cognize I tin do,” she said.

Despite mediocre grades, she was accepted astatine Barnard, her mother’s alma mater. She excelled academically and worked astatine the Columbia University vigor station, WKCR, overseeing classical euphony programming and anchoring quality reports.

In an effort to flooded her dyslexia, she took the fashionable Evelyn Wood velocity speechmaking course, twice, to nary avail. (She cashed successful connected the money-back warrant some times.)

After graduating successful 1971, she traveled to Italy, unsure of a vocation path. While surviving there, she decided to go a doc and took the Medical College Admission Test. Her predictably mediocre people became moot erstwhile the results were lost.

She was accepted astatine the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, which astatine the clip did not necessitate the test. Her father’s stature helped easiness her introduction there, arsenic good arsenic her consequent transportation to Harvard Medical School, but his admonitions loomed implicit her.

“My begetter erstwhile told maine that ‘whatever you extremity up doing, if you’re not the champion successful the satellite there’s nary constituent successful doing it,’” she said successful the Barnard interview. “So I grew up with that benignant of background.”

Her dyslexia, she found, did not hamper her aesculapian studies.

“You tin get done aesculapian schoolhouse by going to each the classes, by listening, by watching,” she said. “The books person a batch of graphs and images and charts.”

In 1975, she met Peter Libby, a chap Harvard aesculapian student. They were joined that year. When she graduated successful 1976, she planned to go a surgeon and was accepted for an internship astatine Brigham and Women’s. But she recovered the tract unwelcoming to women and determine to alteration course.

Considering her options, she recalled what a elder radiologist had told her during a aesculapian schoolhouse rotation: that adjacent from the backmost of a room, she could spot an abnormality successful an image. “You person a acquisition that I’ve ne'er seen before,” helium told her.

She completed a radiology residency astatine Massachusetts General Hospital, followed by a fellowship astatine Brigham and Women’s successful ultrasound, which was past inactive a rudimentary discipline. She chose that tract due to the fact that she wanted to person children and did not privation to beryllium exposed to radiation.

After completing her fellowship and giving commencement to a lad and a girl precisely a twelvemonth apart, Dr. Benacerraf was incapable to get a infirmary occupation successful Boston and opened her ain signifier there, Diagnostic Ultrasound Associates, successful 1982.

In summation to her lad and her husband, a cardiologist and a prof of cardiovascular medicine astatine Harvard Medical School, Dr. Benacerraf is survived by her daughter, Brigitte Benacerraf Libby, and 3 grandchildren.

For 10 years aft opening her practice, Dr. Benacerraf said successful the oral past interview, she was efficaciously the lone doc successful the Boston country who specialized successful prenatal ultrasound. As a result, her signifier grew quickly, arsenic patients from astir New England and beyond sought her out.

During this play she arrived astatine her uncovering relating to the nuchal fold, arsenic good arsenic discoveries about, among different things, the improvement of fetal hearing. In caller years she shifted her absorption to gynecological imaging and conditions similar endometriosis, pelvic symptom and ovarian cancer.

In the people of her four-decade career, Dr. Benacerraf saw tens of thousands of patients portion publishing hundreds of diary articles and respective books. She besides trained legions of doctors. One of them, Dr. Laura E. Riley, the seat of obstetrics and gynecology astatine Weill Cornell Medicine successful New York, described Dr. Benacerraf successful an interrogation arsenic “incredibly brilliant” and “a large teacher.”

She besides called Dr. Benacerraf a “trailblazer” successful utilizing ultrasound successful the work of women’s reproductive wellness — successful astir instances to reassure expectant mothers.

“Her diagnostic ability,” Dr. Riley added, “was 2nd to none.”