ULTRASOUND MACHINE

S.C. Nwaneri, Department of Biomedical Engineering University of Lagos, Nigeria. E-mail: snwaneri@unilag.edu.ng

An ultrasound machine is a medical device that makes use of high frequency sound waves beyond the frequency  range that the normal human ears can hear to view the internal organs of humans. Ultrasound is also known as sonography. The normal frequency range that humans can hear is between 20 Hertz and 20 Kilohertz. An ultrasound machine operates with a frequency of 2 - 20 Mega Hertz. Ultrasound machine is non-invasive and does not make use of harmful ionizing radiation. So the machine is generally safe.

USES OF ULTRASOUND MACHINE

Have you ever been made to go through an ultrasound procedure?  Perhaps you or your loved one has been pregnant and needed to confirm the gender of your unborn baby. That is the most popular use of ultrasound machine. However, ultrasound machine is used for many other purposes.

Ultrasound machine are generally used for obstetric and non-obstetric purposes. 

Obstetric uses of ultrasound machines

  • Confirmation of pregnancy: Ultrasound machine can be used to confirm that a woman is pregnant. 
  • Dating of pregnancy: With the help of ultrasound machine, the due dates of a pregnancy can be determined.  It is known to be the most reliable method used to determine the gestational age of a pregnancy[1].
  • Determination of a baby's gender:  The gender of an unborn baby can be determined by the ultrasound machine. The test is usually done  between 18 and 20 weeks of gestation at which time the male genitals would have developed[2]. 
  • The position of the placenta is determined using ultrasound machine. 
  • It can also indicate if the foetus is growing
  • It can indicate if a woman is carrying multiple pregnancies[3].

Non-Obstetric Uses of ultrasound machine
  • It can be used to diagnose some diseases such as cysts, liver cirrhosis, breast cancer, appendicitis, abdominal pathology etc. 
  • It can also be used to diagnose kidney stones. 
  • The delicate nature of the brain of newborns makes it necessary to use a non-invasive and safe tool for scanning it. Ultrasound machine is used to scan the brain of newborns.
  • Furthermore, gall stones in the gall bladder can be located by ultrasound machine.
  • It is also used for scanning the thyroid gland.
Types of Ultrasound Machines
There are several types of ultrasound machines:
  1. Vascular ultrasound
  2. Veterinary ultrasound
  3. Console ultrasound
  4. Portable ultrasound
How Ultrasound Machine Works
One of the main components of an ultrasound machine is a transducer designed to enable the sonographer  view the the target organ inside the body. The transducer generates sound waves at very high frequencies. The transducer is placed on the part of the body close to the internal organ that is to be examined. The sound waves produced by the transducer, hits the target organ and returns an echo. The signals are processed by the processor and the image of the organ or tissue is displayed as video on a screen. A gel is usually applied to the body to eliminate noise and improve the quality of the image.


Keywords:  Sonography,  Ultrasound machine, Uses of Ultrasound, Transducer.

Fig. 1: Ultrasound Machine



REFERENCES
1. Committee Opinion No 700: Methods for Estimating the Due Date. Obstet Gynecol. 2017 May;129(5):e150-e154.

2. Weiss, R.E. (2021) How to tell a baby's sex on the ultrasound. 

3. Radiologyinfo (2021) Obstetric Ultrasound. Retrieved June 7 2022 from://https://www.radiologyinfo.org/en/info/obstetricus.

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