A trained professional called a sonographer performs an ultrasound.
Parents-to-be often have a photograph that to them is the most precious in all of their collection. Although this photo is a simple black-and-white grainy image, to parents, it is perfect, for the blurry image in that photograph is the first photo of their new baby, taken while the baby is still inside the mother's womb. This image is made during a procedure called a sonogram, or, in its more usual appellation, an ultrasound scan. Sonography is employed in other medical diagnostic procedures as well.
What Sonography Is
According to the Merck Manual, sonography, or ultrasonography, is a method whereby a trained technician uses high-frequency sound, or ultrasound, waves to make images of your internal organs or even of the blood flow or your bodily tissues. This procedure is often called a sonogram or an ultrasound scan, and the trained professional who performs the procedure is a sonographer.
How Sonography Works
The sonographer uses an instrument called a transducer that converts electrical current into sound waves. The sound waves in turn bounce off the organs and tissues in the body, which are reflected back to the transducer. The transducer sends the reflected waves back to a computer, which transforms the electrical signals into patterns, or an image. The sonographer then usually displays this image on a monitor and records it on film or stores it as a digital computer image. The procedure does not use X-rays, and it is considered safe and completely painless.
Sonography During Pregnancy
Women in the second trimester of pregnancy often have an ultrasound.
Sonography is an often-used procedure during pregnancy. Your obstetrician will typically order your first ultrasound when you are between 16 and 20 weeks pregnant, but if your doctor suspects a problem, you may have one as early as 4 or 5 weeks. During the midpregnancy ultrasound, you receive your first glimpse of your baby. The ultrasound will indicate the heartbeat, the age, location, the number and even the gender of your baby, and doctors use it to diagnose birth defects or potential health issues in your fetus. It also provides a glimpse of your placenta, the uterus and other pelvic organs. The ultrasound tells your obstetrician if your pregnancy and the baby are developing normally. It is painless and noninvasive. You should tell the sonographer if you don't want to know the baby's gender.
Sonography for Other Medical Uses
Today, sonography is often used for other diagnostic purposes than just pregnancy. For example, your doctor may order a sonogram as the result of a failed mammogram to perform a more detailed diagnosis. In addition, doctors sometimes order sonograms to help detect vascular disease that can lead to a stroke and to detect and treat heart disease or heart attack. A sonogram is often used during sampling procedures to guide the needle for a biopsy in an organ or the breast. Sonography is even used in eye and brain evaluations, and doctors can use it to detect gallstones or liver disease.
History of Sonography
Sonography helped scientists discover and retrieve artifacts from the Titanic.
Sonography was first developed in practical modern usage during World War II to help locate submerged objects such as torpedoes or bombs. But its roots go back to the ancient Greeks, according to Beth Orenstein in her article "Ultrasound History" that appeared in "Radiology Today" magazine in 2008. In the early 6th century, the philosopher Boethius dropped a tiny pebble into calm waters to compare the sound waves with other waves produced. But, as Orenstein notes, it was scientists' and physicians' desire to see inside the body that led to Pierre Curie's discovery of piezoelectricity in 1877, which historians call the true discovery of ultrasound technology. And the sinking of the Titanic in 1912, Orenstein goes on to say, made "people want to know detect submerged objects." But sonography as a tool for medical science did not occur until the 1920s and 1930s, when it was first used in physical therapy for Europe's soccer teams. The technology has improved dramatically, and today thousands of sonographers work in the field around the world.
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