Ultrasound Machines & Ultra Sound
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Ultrasound machines used for medical diagnostics or therapies emit high-frequency, ultra sound waves toward a part of the body and can produce pictures of the inside of the subject without using harmful radiation the way x-rays do. Ultrasound machines produce little to zero ionizing radiation, so ultrasound is very safe for human beings because the radiation is a much lower amount than could cause damage to a person.
With their own, easily obtainable ultrasound machines, doctors' offices and clinics are able to examine various organs in the body on-site without having to send patients to the hospital or expensive medical imaging or ultrasound treatment centers. Compared to magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and computed tomography (CT), Ultrasound machines are relatively inexpensive and portable.
To
purchase an ultrasound machine, ultrasound system, or ultrasound equipment, please contact Smartsound Ultrasound to see if your practice qualifies.
What is Ultra Sound?
Ultra, or beyond the norm, when used to describe sound waves as in "ultra sound", is that which exceeds a frequency that a human ear can detect. Normally a human can hear approximately 20 hertz to 20,000 hertz. Ultra sound, used for diagnostic imaging or therapy, can be employed to analyze or treat medical conditions. It applies cyclic sound pressure pulsed at a frequency higher than the human ear can detect, or 20,000 hertz, hence the name
ultra sound.
Components of an Ultrasound Machine
Sonographers & Ultrasound Technicians
Trained operators of ultrasound machines
Central Processing Unit (CPU)
The ultrasound machine's brain. The computer that contains the microprocessor, memory, amplifiers and power supplies for the microprocessor and transducer probe. The CPU sends electrical currents to the transducer, which in turn sends electrical pulses that bounce off of the target and return echoes. The CPU calculates the location of thousands of points of echo origins to produce an image for output such as a monitor, a printer, a network drive; or a disk.
Transducer Pulse Controls
The transducer pulse controls can set and vary the frequency and duration of the ultra sound pulses. The transducer pulse controls also allow for scanning the mode of the machine. Electrical currents are applied to the piezoelectric (PZ) crystals in the transducer probe, as selected by the operator.
Display
The display turns processed data from the CPU into an image. Images have typically been black-and-white, but newer ultrasound machines can produce color images.
Keyboard/Cursor
Ultrasound machines have a keyboard and a cursor. The keyboard allows the operator to add notes and to take measurements of the image; the mouse enables the operator to interact with the ultrasound machines software..
Disk Storage
The processed data and/or images can be stored. Storage can include hard disks, compact disks (CDs), digital video disks (DVDs), or a network drive. Most of the time, ultrasound machines store data with the patient's medical records.
Printers
Most ultrasound machines have thermal printers connected to them. Ultrasound images are in motion, but a still can be captured at any point in time to send the image to the printer.
Ultrasound Uses
Ultra sound machines can be used on many subjects, typically to infiltrate them and evaluate the reflection signature, or to supply concentrated energy. The ultra sound reflection signature can detail the inside structure of the medium. The most well known application of ultrasound machines is for images of fetuses. While many people relate this applied science with obstetrics, there are many other applications for ultrasound technology.
Identifying and diagnosing many an ailment before an effective treatment using ultrasound imaging has steeply declined our death rate from a variety of diseases and conditions. Medical diagnosis, which is crucial in disease treatment, has been a chief cause in this overall improvement of health outcomes. Ultrasound machines gave a huge boost to medical diagnosis. Ultrasound machines can visualize problems in a patients' organs and other tissues by bouncing ultra sound waves off of them and using a computer to plot the many points and render them on the monitor or print onto thermal paper.
- Diagnostic - Capture size, structure, and any pathological lesions; Scans routinely conducted are cardiac, renal, liver and gallbladder (hepatic); Applications include musculo-skeletal imaging of muscles, ligaments and tendons, ophthalmic ultrasound (eye) scans and superficial structures such as testicle, thyroid, salivary glands, and lymph nodes. Ultrasound is also increasingly being used in trauma and first aid cases by the likes of EMT response teams. Vascular scans are possible with the use of Doppler to display blood flow.
- Therapeutic - break kidney stones and gallstones; focused ultrasound surgery; acoustic targeted drug delivery; cataract treatment; stimulate tooth and bone growth; non-surgical treatment of varicose veins; Liposuction and lipectomy; bacterial cell killing; and acoustophoresis (contactless separation, concentration, and manipulation of microparticles and biological cells). Because of the real time nature of ultrasound, it is often used to guide interventional procedures such as fine needle aspiration FNA or biopsy of masses for cytology or histology testing in the breast, thyroid, liver, kidney, lymph nodes, muscles and joints.
- Industrial
- Cleaning - teeth and medical / dental instruments
- Humidifiers
- Echo Location & Range Finding
- Chemistry
- Weaponry
How Ultrasound Machines Work
Ultrasound machines have what is known as a transducer probe, which both emits and receives the ultrasound waves. Pulse controls are used to control the different wave properties of frequency, duration, and amplitude. Other components of the machines include a CPU, a mouse, a display, and a printer.
Sound waves coming from the ultrasound machine's transducer, or probe, echo off of the target to help determine the size, shape, and depth of an abnormality. In a typical ultrasound, millions of pulses and echoes are sent and received from the probe each second. Ultrasound waves come from small vibrations or waves going through matter. Although ultra sound waves are sound waves, they are inaudible. This is because the frequency is too high for human beings to hear.
Ultrasound machines use ultra sound waves to image internal organs. These waves are emitted by the machine and bounce back when they collide with abnormal tissue or tumors, or at the boundaries between different tissue types. The machine times the reflections to calculate distances and generate images of the organs which show intensities.
Ultrasound machines provide the ability to view live images of our internal organs. By use of the controls provided, a radiologist can view the exact section of an internal organ. Portable machines are also available for emergency medical teams.
How an ultrasound is done?
In an ultrasound scan, a real-time scanner forms a continuous range of images of the subject on a screen. A transducer is used for releasing these waves. The recurring beams of the ultrasound scan the subject and go back to the transducer. The data obtained from the different reflections recomposes in the form of a picture on display screen.
Ultrasound imaging is a complex medical procedure that requires prior training due to the possible health risks. The high frequency waves generated during the process are potentially damaging to body tissue and nerves if exposure is too lengthy. As such, only professional doctors with experience in radiology can correctly regulate duration.
Is Ultrasound Safe?
Yes. Although occupational exposure to ultrasound in excess of 120 dB (loudness) may lead to hearing loss, and exposure in excess of 155 dB may produce heating effects that are harmful to the human body, and it has been calculated that exposures above 180 dB may lead to death, the loudness of medical ultra sound waves is much quieter albeit a higher pitch (above 20,000 hertz).
As currently applied in the medical field, properly performed ultrasound poses no known risks to the patient. Sonography is generally described as a "safe test" because it does not use mutagenic ionizing radiation, which can pose hazards such as chromosome breakage and cancer development. However, ultrasonic energy has two potential physiological effects: it enhances inflammatory response; and it can heat soft tissue. Ultrasound energy produces a mechanical pressure wave through soft tissue. This pressure wave may cause microscopic bubbles in living tissues and distortion of the cell membrane, influencing ion fluxes and intracellular activity. When ultrasound enters the body, it causes molecular friction and heats the tissues slightly. This effect is typically very minor as normal tissue perfusion dissipates most of the heat, but with high intensity, it can also cause small pockets of gas in body fluids or tissues to expand and contract/collapse in a phenomenon called cavitation; however this is not known to occur at diagnostic power levels used by modern diagnostic ultrasound units.
Ultrasound produces heating, pressure changes and mechanical disturbances in tissue. Diagnostic levels of ultrasound can produce temperature rises that are hazardous to sensitive organs and the embryo/fetus.
History of Ultrasound
The use of ultra sound began with SONAR (Sound Navigation and Ranging) for submarines and has had many uses with varying degrees of success since then.
Ultrasound has been used by sonographers to image the human body since the 1940's and has become one of the most widely used diagnostic tools in modern medicine.
* When was ultrasound testing invented? 1826
* Who invented it? Swiss physicist, Jean-Daniel Colladon
* How was it discovered? Colladon used an underwater bell to determine the speed of sound in the water
* How did it progress to what is available in 2009? Many studied sound vibrations (waves), transmission, propagation and refraction throughout the 1800's; English Lord Rayleigh published in 1877 "the Theory of Sound" & first described sound wave as a mathematical equation, forming the basis of future practical work in acoustics; Italian biologist, Lazzaro Spallanzani, demonstrated in 1794 the ability of bats navigating accurately in the dark via echo reflection from high frequency inaudible sound or 'ultrasound'; Very high frequency sound waves above the limit of human hearing were generated by English scientist Francis Galton in 1876, through his invention of the Galton whistle; it was discovered in Paris, France in 1880 by Pierre Curie and his brother Jacques Curie, that electric potential would be produced when mechanical pressure was exerted on a quartz crystal; the opposite of which was mathematically deduced from thermodynamic principles by physicist Gabriel Lippman in 1881. It was then possible for the generation and reception of 'ultrasound'. Underwater sonar detection systems were developed for the purpose of underwater navigation by submarines in World war I; the first working sonar system was designed and built in the United States by Canadian Reginald Fessenden in 1914. It was able to detect an iceberg underwater from 2 miles away. Powerful electronic amplifications were necessary for developments in ultrasonic instruments. French physicist Paul Langévin and Russian scientist Constantin Chilowsky developed an ultrasonic echo-sounding device called the 'hydrophone', the basis of the development of naval pulse-echo sonar. Discoveries and developments parallel to echo sound, such as electro-magnetic RADAR; ENIAC, the first digital computer; and the point-contact transister. Medically, the heating and disruptive effects of ultrasound were applied to therapy, and then as a neuro-surgical tool, before being used in the 1940's for diagnosis. Then Karl Theo Dussik, a neurologist/psychiatrist at the University of Vienna, Austria, and his brother Friederich, a physicist, first employed ultrasound in medical diagnosis by attempting to locate brain tumors by measuring an ultrasound beam through the skull producing echo images of the ventricles of the brain recorded photographically on heat-sensitive paper.
To purchase an ultrasound machine from Smartsound Ultrasound, your practice must first meet certain criteria. Please contact us.