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Many of us are familiar with ultrasound due to its popularity and importance in obstetrics in
human medicine. However, what most people don't know is that the use of ultrasound is one of
the most important "second generation" imaging modalities in veterinary medicine today.
The use of ultrasound gained early attention in veterinary medicine in the treatment of
tendon and ligament injuries in horse in the early 1980's. Use of the "sonogram" and its
importance in non-invasive diagnostic tests has exploded in the last twenty years. Newer
models, with advancing technologies, have made the ultrasound machine a very important piece
of the clinician's "bag."
What can ultrasound actually do? Good question!
- Ultrasound is the use of sound waves bouncing off an object and returning to the probe.
The technology actually interprets the images by "counting" how long the sound waves take to
come back.
- Ultrasound can not penetrate air or bone. In air, the sound waves scatter, lost forever;
in bone, they meet a formidable boundary and are absorbed by the structure.
- Ultrasound can help determine internal structure of organs by measuring their
"echogenicity." For example, in the bladder, the walls are fairly echogenic, or bright, but
the urine is very low in its echogenicity (called – hypoechoic). Bladder stones are like
bone, then, and the sound waves are absorbed. Normal tissues have "normal" patterns of
echogenicity; abnormal organs may have increased or decreased echogenicity.
- Ultrasound is very useful in measuring and studying the function of the heart. Not only
can the structure of the heart, with dimensions of the chambers measured, but ultrasound can
also measure how much blood is being pumped out of the heart on each "stroke."
- Ultrasound can be used to help guide biopsy procedures. If a mass is found in the liver,
for example, the ultrasound can help guide the forceps right to the area in question. Now, a
diagnosis can be made without subjecting that patient to an exploratory for that same purpose.
In the same vein, ultrasound can guide retrieval of urine for analysis and culture during a
procedure known as cystocentesis.
- Ultrasound can also help determine whether there is free fluid (blood, pus, urine, etc)
in the abdominal and thoracic cavities. This can be life-saving for many patients when
deciding whether to operate or not.
There are hugely expensive machines and those less expensive. Flowertown's machine falls into
the latter category. But, when we need a higher level of sophistication, we refer to
colleagues in our area with the larger and better toy.
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