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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.
Home ultrasound is the provision of therapeutic ultrasound via the use of a portable or home ultrasound machine. This method of medical ultrasound therapy can be used for various types of pain relief and physical therapy. In physics, the term "ultrasound" [1] applies to all acoustic energy with a frequency above the audible range of human ...
Ultrasound image showing the liver, gallbladder and common bile duct. Medical ultrasound uses high frequency broadband sound waves in the megahertz range that are reflected by tissue to varying degrees to produce (up to 3D) images. This is commonly associated with imaging the fetus in pregnant women. Uses of ultrasound are much broader, however.
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 ...
Ultrasound is defined by the American National Standards Institute as "sound at frequencies greater than 20 kHz". In air at atmospheric pressure, ultrasonic waves have wavelengths of 1.9 cm or less. Ultrasound can be generated at very high frequencies; ultrasound is used for sonochemistry at frequencies up to multiple hundreds of kilohertz.
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.
Ultrasound imaging is useful for detecting stones, for example kidney stones or gallstones, because they create a clearly visible ultrasound shadow behind the stone. [ citation needed ] Ultrasonography can be used to guide procedures such as treatment for kidney stones with extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy , needle biopsies or paracentesis ...
Portable ultrasound is a modality of medical ultrasonography that utilizes small and light devices, compared to the console-style ultrasound machines that preceded them. In most cases these mobile ultrasound systems could be carried by hand and in some cases even operated for a time on battery power alone.