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Ultrasound

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Ultrasound

For our project we researched ultrasound which is also commonly known as a Sonogram. The definition of ultrasound is energy that is generated by sound waves of 20,000 or greater vibrations per second. Ultrasound is used in many different arrays. It is most often used in the medical field. Ultrasound uses sound waves that are too high to be heard by the human ear. A part of the ultrasound machine called the transducer is placed on the body part and sound waves are emitted from the transducer and reflected back from organs and tissues. When the wave is sent back to the transducer it puts it into the computer which then measures the length of time it took for the wave to leave and come back and this is what makes up the pictures. Ultrasounds are used to look for many different things in the body from tumors to bones to examining an unborn baby. The history of Ultrasound doesn’t go back very far.
Although ultrasound has been around since the first world war. It wasn’t until the 1940’s when it was first used for medical purposes. Two researchers are recognized in the history of ultrasound, Doctor Karl Theodore Dussik of Austria and Professor Ian Donald of Scotland. They were the first physicians to use ultrasound for medical purposes. Dussik first used ultrasound to find tumors in the brain and to look for the cerebral ventricals. He called his procedure hyperphonography. Donald wrote an article called Investigation of Abdominal Masses by Pulsed Ultrasound. That was later published in the medical journal The Lancet in 1958. Donald first started to investigate ultrasound for medical purposes after he saw it being used in ship yards to look for flaws in the medal. Since then there has been major advancements in the world of ultrasound.
When it comes to fetal monitoring, there are transvaginal scans, standard ultrasounds, advanced ultrasounds, 3-D ultrasounds, 4-D or dynamic 3-D ultrasounds, fetal echocardiography. Ultrasounds are not only done for fetal monitoring but you can also have Echocardiogram, Abdominal Ultrasounds, Cranial ultrasounds and Duplex Ultrasounds. Transvaginal scans are pretty much the same thing as an abdominal scan except for the transducer is a probe that is positioned inside the female’s vagina. This method is used mostly in the early stages of pregnancy. This method is one of the best ways for finding out if the female is having an ectopic pregnancy. There are several different states that are not only using the Transvaginal scans for pregnancy but are also using it during the woman’s yearly female checkup. It’s a much more reliable method for checking for sits on the ovaries, for tumors and for ovarian cancer. The 3D and 4D ultrasounds are a lot like a standard ultrasound. In a standard ultrasound the sound wave are emitted straight down and are reflected straight back and this will give you a 2 dimensional picture. Like the ones most women bring home from their doctors’ visits when they are pregnant. In a 3D ultrasound they use a process known as surface rendering. In this process sound waves are directed into the body in more than one direction. Very high tech computers then interpret the information and make up and image. The images are show more depth and dimension and can be interpreted better by people who are not trained to interpret the images. The only difference in 4D ultrasound to 3D ultrasound is that 4D produces a 3 dimensional image in real time. This kind of ultrasound is not used for medical diagnostics right now. It is mostly used for women to see a better picture of what their child is going to look like or the gender of the child. They call this kind of ultrasound “the keep sake ultrasound”. The 3D and 4D ultrasounds are done in the women second trimester much like fetal echocardiography. A fetal echocardiography is done the same way a standard ultrasound is done on the abdomen or it can also be done transvaginaly. With this ultrasound they are looking specifically at the heart of the unborn child this test can show a better picture of the heart as compared to that of a standard ultrasound. In this test they look for the blood flow to the heart, the rhythm of the heart and the structures of the heart. Echocardiograms can also be done one Adults and children. This is also like a standard abdominal ultrasound except the transducer is placed over the person’s heart. They look at the same things as in a fetal echocardiography. They can also use a Doppler examination where they examine the blood flow direction and velocity. The Doppler examination uses high frequency sound waves to create the picture and also uses a Doppler effect to show the direction of the blood flow. The picture of the Doppler examination will show color images or even gray scale tracings of the blood flow. The most common type of echocardiogram is the Transthoracic echocardiogram. This is where they just move the transducer to different parts of the chest and abdomen to obtain different views of the heart. They also do a Stress echocardiogram and a Transesophageal echocardiogram. The stress echocardiogram is done before and after the heart is put under a stress by exercise. The transeophageal test is done by passing a type of transducer down the esophagus to obtain a closer view of the heart.
Out of all the ultrasounds out there the one big question always is it harmful to your body and to an unborn child. Through all the research that we have done about ultrasounds was that there is no conclusive evidence that ultrasounds are harmful to your body and that of an unborn child. However, it did say that when an ultrasound transducer is place in the same spot for a long period of time it can heat up the tissue and can cause bubbles in the tissues. So we think that if the ultrasound machine is used by trained professionals for a short period of time for the purpose of obtaining medical information then the advantages outweigh the possible risks.
There are many more different kinds of ultrasound machines out there that were not covered in this paper. We encourage you to research them if your medical doctor orders a certain procedure on you. There will also be many more advance ultrasound machines to come.

Work cited page:
Category. "Ultrasound - The History of Ultrasound." Inventors. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Nov. 2011. <http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blultrasound.htm>.
"Echocardiogram." WebMD - Better information. Better health.. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Nov. 2011. <http://www.webmd.com/heart-disease/echocardiogram>.
Freudenrich, Craig, and Ph.D.. "HowStuffWorks "How Ultrasound Works"." HowStuffWorks "Learn how Everything Works!". N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Nov. 2011. <http://www.howstuffworks.com/ultrasound4.htm>.
"Ian Donald - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Nov. 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_Donald>.
Orenstein, Beth W.. "Ultrasound History." Radiology Today Magazine. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Nov. 2011. <http://www.radiologytoday.net/archive/rt_120108p28.shtml>.
"Professor Ian Donald, pioneer of Ultrasonography in Obstetrics and Gyanecology." Obstetric ultrasound -- a comprehensive guide to ultrasound scans in pregnancy . N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Nov. 2011. <http://www.ob-ultrasound.net/iandonaldbio.html>.
Reichert, Robin. "How Does 3D Ultrasound Work? | eHow.com." eHow | How to Videos, Articles & More - Discover the expert in you. | eHow.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Nov. 2011. <http://www.ehow.com/how-does_5041193_ultrasound-work.html>.
"The transvaginal (endovaginal) scanner." Obstetric ultrasound -- a comprehensive guide to ultrasound scans in pregnancy . N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Nov. 2011. <http://www.ob-ultrasound.net/xvag.html>.

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