Ultrasound scan is a diagnostic imaging technology that operates on the sound waves principle. The scan does not use any harmful radiation as used by other diagnostic imaging modalities including X-rays, CT scan, MRI scans, and others. These modalities use ionising radiation as their operation principle. These ionising radiations contain in themselves, the potential to cause DNA mutations and other genetic makeup alterations. Sometimes these genetic alterations can ever become the cause of cancer development in an individual. The ultrasound scan stands as a safe, quick, and pain-free procedure.
Ultrasound scan is otherwise also known as ultrasonography, sonography, and USG.
Ultrasound scan has various names as suggested by their respective use including
- Mammography
- Duplex ultrasound
- Transvaginal ultrasound
- Color Doppler
- Abdominal ultrasound
- Echocardiogram
- Thyroid
- Transrectal ultrasonography
- Carotid and abdominal aorta ultrasound
- Triplex ultrasound
- 2D scans
- 3D scan
- Date estimating scan
- Intravascular ultrasound
- Prostate ultrasound
- Transabdominal
Ultrasound scan centres near you are effective in providing information on various health conditions
- For describing and visualising various tumours and masses
- For viewing stones present in the urinary tract
- For getting estimations on gestational age during pregnancy
- To determine congenital abnormalities in the growing child during pregnancy
- To diagnose conditions like PCOD by visualising ovaries in the lower abdomen.
- To assess inflammation in the body including synovitis
- To guide certain biopsy procedures, it helps in collecting the tissue that is viewed under a microscope for any abnormality
- It is used to examine the blood flowing to and through your body.
For an ultrasound scan, you are generally guided to drink plenty of water if the scan is going to be done to examine your bladder or urinary system. You should wear loose and comfortable clothes for the scan. The area which is to be examined needs to be clothes-free. You will be asked to lay down on a flat scan table, the area to be examined is placed with a special gel, and a wand known as a transducer is run over the gel placed area to view the real-time scan images on the screen. The gel helps in producing an air free space. Once the scan is done, the gel is wiped off.
There are no side effects or harm that an ultrasound can pose, but the scan holds some limitations. The ultrasound scan is insufficient in representing organs that are placed beneath the hard tissues, for example, the scan cannot show soft tissues present under bones, for example the lungs can’t be sufficiently viewed as they are present under the ribs. The ultrasound scan can additionally not yield clear and sufficient scan images. Other than these two limitations, the scan is sufficiently capable of providing adequate information with no side effects.
