Ultrasound - The Good Outweighs the Bad

Medical imaging has undergone a sea change over the years, and now we have a range of techniques that look into our body and help doctors diagnose what’s wrong with us. Certain kinds of injuries and diseases require certain kinds of radiology techniques, but ultrasound examinations seem to score over the rest in situations where it can be applied. And this is because:

• Ultrasound is a non-invasive procedure and you don’t have to deal with the pain and discomfort of tubes and scopes being inserted into your body.
• It’s not as expensive as other forms of medical imaging because the equipment is cost-effective.
• It’s convenient and quick.
• It’s portable since the machine is light enough to be moved from place to place.
• It’s usually available at your doctor’s office, thus saving you the trouble of going to a different location for your imaging needs.
• It is safe as it does not use harmful radiation like X-rays or MRI scans and so, is the best form of examination for pregnant mothers.
• It can be used to provide therapeutic massages and physical therapy.
• It is even used to break kidney stones in a painless, non-invasive procedure.
• It does not use any chemicals to visualize your innards.
• It uses real-time imaging (images appear as soon as the transducer is placed on skin) that allows the radiologist to see the movement of tissues.
• The real-time imaging also allows ultrasound to be used to guide biopsies.
• Doppler ultrasounds can be used to evaluate blood flow in blood vessels and in solid organs and masses.
• Intravenous ultrasound is used to evaluate the insides of blood vessels.
• Focused ultrasound is used to perform surgeries for treatment of tumors like fibroids in the uterus.

On the negative side though:

• Ultrasound can be used only to image internal organs that are made of soft tissues.
• It cannot be used to image hard structures like the bone and organs filled with air like the lungs and bowels.
• The images are little difficult to interpret unless you’re a trained radiologist.
• The low resolution makes it hard to get detailed anatomical information.
• It’s hard to get decipherable pictures in obese people because fat is a poor transmitter of sound.
• The range of vision is limited.
• The presence of air or gas makes the quality of images poorer than they usually are.
• When used for long periods of time at high intensities, it can cause the tissues to become heated. 

The positive aspects of ultrasound outweigh the negatives, and this is why ultrasound remains a popular way to produce medical images.