What Are Ultrasounds: Purpose, Types, and Benefits
Imaging tests have gained immense popularity over the past decades as excellent tools for diagnostic purposes. Ultrasound is one such revolutionary technological innovation that helps healthcare professionals globally. It is a noninvasive test that works on sound wave energy.
The ultrasound Buckhead specialists offer patients convenient and accurate imaging to diagnose health conditions and develop treatment plans. Let’s explore more about ultrasound, its purpose, and the procedure to perform the test.
What are ultrasounds?
Ultrasounds produce images of your internal organs using a special transducer machine with a hand-held scanner or probe connected to a computer.
The transducer emits high-frequency sound waves that penetrate through your skin, and as they reach your organs or tissues, they bounce off and return to the transducer. These transfer the information to the computer for conversion of soundwave data to high-quality imagery.
What health conditions can be diagnosed through ultrasounds?
Ultrasounds are popularly used for diagnostic purposes to identify the cause of gynecological conditions.
Common conditions diagnosed through ultrasounds include:
- Abnormal vaginal bleeding
- Heavy periods
- Chronic pelvic pain
- Endometriosis
- Ovarian cysts like PCOD (polycystic ovarian disease)
- Uterine fibroids (benign growths in the uterus)
- Endometrial polyps
- Pelvic inflammatory disease (PID)
- Ovarian cancer
Ultrasounds also find application for several procedures such as a sonohysterogram to check for uterine cavity growths.
What are the types of ultrasounds?
There are two types of ultrasound scans that help evaluate gynecological conditions and pathologies. These include:
- Transvaginal
- This is an internal scan since the transducer or probe is inserted into the vagina.
- Offers more precision and accuracy, since sound waves don’t have to penetrate through the skin.
- It can effectively evaluate the health of the uterus, ovaries, and fallopian tubes.
- Abdominal
- The external scan moves the probe around the abdomen to capture images of the baby during pregnancy, and abdominal structures.
- Your doctor will apply a gel-like substance that helps quick and easy transmission of sound waves deeper into the tissue layers.
What are the benefits of ultrasounds?
Ultrasounds are common diagnostic tests due to the following benefits:
- It is a non-invasive
- It is safe since there is no radiation involved
- Painless procedure
- Cost-effective test
- It gives an accurate picture of the internal organs
Takeaway
Ultrasounds are simple, safe, and convenient diagnostic tools that help healthcare professionals identify and evaluate gynecological conditions and monitor the health of the mother and baby during pregnancy. This test offers high-quality imaging results to develop future treatment plans to improve your quality of life.
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