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Medical ultrasound includes diagnostic techniques (mainly imaging techniques) using ultrasound, as well as therapeutic applications of ultrasound. In diagnosis, it is used to create an image of internal body structures such as tendons, muscles, joints, blood vessels, and internal organs, to measure some characteristics (e.g., distances and velocities) or to generate an informative audible sound.
Ultrasound is sound with frequencies greater than 20 kilohertz. [1] This frequency is the approximate upper audible limit of human hearing in healthy young adults. The physical principles of acoustic waves apply to any frequency range, including ultrasound.
These procedures generally use lower frequencies than medical diagnostic ultrasound (from 0.7 to 2 MHz), but higher the frequency means lower the focusing energy. HIFU treatment is often guided by MRI. Focused ultrasound may be used to dissolve kidney stones by lithotripsy. Ultrasound may be used for cataract treatment by phacoemulsification.
Typical diagnostic ultrasound machines operate in the frequency range of 2-18 megahertz, whereas home ultrasound machines and therapeutic ultrasound machines operate in the frequency range of .7-3.3 megahertz. Diagnostic sonography is typically used to create an audio "image", such as during pregnancy to visualize the developing baby.
The ultrasound probe emits a high-frequency sound wave (usually a multiple of 2 MHz) that bounces off various substances in the body. These echoes are detected by a sensor in the probe. In the case of blood in an artery, the echoes have different frequencies depending on the direction and speed of the blood because of the Doppler effect. [2]
The ultrasound within tissue consists of very high frequency sound waves, between 800,000 Hz and 20,000,000 Hz, which cannot be heard by humans. Some of the advantages of ultrasound as a diagnostic and therapeutic tool include its safety profile, lack of radiation, portability, and low cost. [ 4 ]
Doppler echocardiography is a procedure that uses Doppler ultrasonography to examine the heart. [1] An echocardiogram uses high frequency sound waves to create an image of the heart while the use of Doppler technology allows determination of the speed and direction of blood flow by utilizing the Doppler effect.
The transducer may be used in contact with the skin, as in fetal ultrasound imaging, or inserted into a body opening such as the rectum or vagina. Clinicians who perform ultrasound-guided procedures often use a probe positioning system to hold the ultrasonic transducer. [9] Compared to other medical imaging modalities, ultrasound has several ...