Medical ultrasound and Ultrasound machine




Medical ultrasound

Medical ultrasound (also known as diagnostic ultrasound or ultrasound) is a diagnostic imaging technique, or therapeutic application of ultrasound. It is used to create an image of internal body structures such as tendons, muscles, joints, blood vessels and internal organs. Its aim is often to find a source of disease or to exclude pathology. The practice of screening pregnant women using ultrasound is called obstetrical ultrasound and was an early development and application of clinical ultrasound. Ultrasound of the carotid artery is an ultrasound with higher frequencies than humans hear (< 20000Hz). Ultrasound images, also known as ultrasound, are performed by sending pulses of ultrasound to tissues using a probe. Ultrasound pulses echo the tissue with different reflection properties and are recorded and displayed as an image. Many different types of images can be created. The most common is the B-mode image.






Echo planning (ultrasound) is widely used in medicine, and it is used as a device ultrasound machine . SO echo planning allows diagnostic and therapeutic procedures to be performed, as it is used to guide other tools in interventional procedures such as biopsies or fluid drainage. Echo planning specialists take images interpreted by radiologists, doctors who specialize in applying and interpreting a wide range of medical imaging methods, or cardiologists in the event of ultrasound (echocardiogram). Doctors (and other health care providers who provide direct care to the patient) use ultrasound planning in a clinic or hospital (echo planning at points of care).

Medical echo planning is effective in the imaging of soft tissues in the body. Surface structures such as muscles, tendons, testicles, breast, thyroid, thyroid glands, and brain are depicted in children, all using high frequencies (7-18 MHz), providing the best linear (pivotal) and horizontal (lateral) resolution. Imagine deeper structures such as the liver and kidneys using lower frequencies (1-6 MHz), and the resulting axial and lateral resolution is lower as a result of the deep positioning of these organs.

The general ultrasound probe can be used for most echographing purposes, while some special applications need to use custom probes. Most procedures are performed using a probe on the surface of the body, but diagnosis can often become more reliable when placing the probe inside the body. Specialized probes are therefore used, including vaginal, rectum and esophageal probes. In some cases, a very small probe can be installed on a small diameter catheter that enters the blood vessels to photograph its walls and lesions.








Cardiology (cardiac ultrasound machine)

 

Echocardiography (echo echocardiogram) is an essential tool in cardiac diseases.It helps assess the function of the heart valves, such as narrowing or insufficiency, the force of contraction (contraction) of the heart muscle, and detecting the enlargement or expansion of the heart chambers (ventricles and atria).

 

Angiology or vascular

 

 In angiology or vascular medicine, bilateral ultrasound (B-pattern imaging with Dopplerometry) is used to diagnose arterial and venous diseases. This type of imaging is especially important in neurology, as carotid ultrasound is used to assess blood flow and narrowing in the carotid arteries, and transcranial Doppler is used to measure blood flow in the arteries inside the brain

 

Anesthesiology In anesthesiology


ultrasound imaging is commonly used to guide the needle when a local anesthetic solution is injected near nerves. It is also used to secure the vascular access when a central venous cannula is placed, and an arteriovenous cannula is difficult to apply. Neuroesthesiologists often use transcranial Doppler to obtain information about the velocity of flow in the basal cerebral vessels

 


Gastrointestinal medicine/colorectal surgery


Echo planning across the abdomen or inside the anus is frequently used in gastrointestinal medicine and colorectal surgery. In echo planning across the abdomen, solid organs in the abdomen such as pancreas, aorta, lower hollow vein, liver, gallbladder, bile ducts, kidneys, and spleen are depicted. Gases in the intestines hinder ultrasound and reduce fat from these waves to varying degrees, sometimes limiting the diagnostic capacity of ultrasound. Inflamed excess may appear in psoriasis planning (e.g., appendicitis), and ultrasound is the first pictorial option in these cases, avoiding unnecessary exposure to radiation, but we often need to follow it in other imaging methods such as CT scans. Intraus echo planning is particularly used when investigating symptoms such as stool sledding or difficulty defecation. Echo planning shows the anatomy of the nearby ocean and is able to detect hidden problems such as tearing the sphincter. Ultrasound allows liver tumors to be detected and identified


Emergency Medicine


There are many applications for point-of-care ultrasound in emergency situations. This includes distinguishing between cardiac and pulmonary causes of acute respiratory arrest, and focused evaluation of trauma using ultrasound imaging to assess cardiac tamponade or hemolysis of the peritoneum after trauma. Another use in emergency medicine is to differentiate between the causes of abdominal pain, such as gallstones or kidney stones. Emergency medicine residency programs have a long history of encouraging the use of medical sonography in medical practice while training physicians

 

 

Obstetrics and Gynecology


Medical echo planning allows pelvic organs to be examined in females (especially the uterus, ovaries, fallopian tubes), as well as the bladder, uterine extensions, and Douglas's carcation. Special screening probes are used through the pelvic wall with a curved and sectoral surface, as well as custom probes such as vaginal probes.

Developed in the late 1950s and 1960s by Sir Ian Donald, obstetric echo planning is commonly used during pregnancy to follow the development and appearance of the fetus. It can be used to detect many harmful conditions for the mother and/or baby that remain undiagnosed or delayed diagnosis of the absence of ultrasound. It is currently believed that the risk of leaving these cases undiagnosed is greater than the potentially small risk associated with ultrasound exposure. But its use for non-medical purposes such as videos and "memorial" images of the fetus is not favorable.

Obstetric echo planning is mainly used for:

  • ·       Determining the date of pregnancy (gestational age)
  • ·       Verification of fetal anosmia
  • ·       Locating the fetus, inside or outside the uterus
  • ·       Positioning the placenta for the cervix
  • ·       Find out how many embryos (multiple pregnancies)
  • ·       Detection of major physical abnormalities
  • ·       Assessment of fetal development (to detect manifestations that determine intrauterine growth)
  • ·       Check fetal movement and heartbeat
  • ·       Determining the sex of the baby

 

 






 



History of ultrasound machine


A brief history of the development of ultrasound devices The first research in sound waves began since 1822, when the physicist (Daniel Colladin) of Swiss origin sought to calculate the speed of sound through his water bell in the waters of Lake Geneva. Which led to the development of the (theory of sound) in 1877 by the efforts of the scientist (Lord Relais), which explained the physical basics of sound waves, their transmission and bounce. And successive research continued until the first sound radar system, known as (Sonar) was designed in the United States in 1914 for the purposes of maritime navigation and to locate the German Marines in World War I. Ultrasound was not used to serve medical purposes until the beginning of the forties by the Austrian neurologist (Karl Theodo), who was considered the first doctor to use ultrasound in medical diagnosis, and he faced difficulties in that because the skull bones absorbed most of the ultrasound energy.

 

After the outcome of intensive efforts of physicists, mechanical, electrical and biological engineers in cooperation with doctors, computer programmers, researchers and government support, ultrasound diagnosis began to take its place in neurology, heart and eyes clinics and to develop waves from a limited-use A-Mode to B-Mode, which sought Scientist Douglas Horry as an x-ray technician for diagnosis of her ability to penetrate tissues with the aim of the anatomical study of body organs at the University of Colorado in Dinger in collaboration with fellow nephrologist Joseph Hummels, who in turn adopted medical research at this level and directed it and collaborated with scientists. The engineers (Biles and Posakoni) were the first B-Mode 2D Ultrasound in 1951. The devices operating in this system rolled but they were all large and the patient had to fully or partially immerse himself in the water in a state of sleep for a long time, which made it impractical and impossible to be present in specialist clinics.

In late 1955, the world began to develop these devices to become more sensitive, slimmer and easier to inspect until they reached the moving metal arm, which is placed on the inspection site.

. And in late 1955, the world began developing these devices to become more sensitive, slimmer and easier in the way of examination, until they reached the moving metal arm that is placed on the place designated for examination. With the eighties, a real revolution took place in the world of ultrasound, which is the so-called (real time scanner), meaning live imaging (two-dimensional B-mode), through which the actual fetus’s life, movements, behavior, heartbeat, and breathing were identified in the mother’s womb. The first effective device in this field was in 1985 in Germany, and the eighties were the field of competition for the manufacturers of ultrasound devices to provide the most accurate and clear images. Thus, the features of a new science became clear in the specialty of obstetrics and gynecology (diagnosis and safety of the fetus

After these ancient stages in the history of ultrasound, and after the raging scientific revolutions at every level and the renewed requirements of the era, the two-dimensional ultrasound devices became unsatisfactory - despite all the success they had achieved - and scientists headed towards the third dimension to obtain vivid, three-dimensional images of what is happening in the human body. And in Japan at the University of Tokyo was the first report on the three-dimensional system (length, width, depth or height) in 1984 and the first successful attempt to obtain a three-dimensional image of a fetus from a two-dimensional image by computer was in 1986

After the development of independent three-dimensional ultrasound devices, the problem was in the time period it takes to capture each clip, as it exceeds ten minutes, which is impossible for either the attending physician or the patient to work with, and therefore marketing is impossible. With the intensive efforts and continuous development, the first three-dimensional ultrasound device to take a shop in the market was in 1989 in Austria and the world, especially in Japan, Austria, Britain, Canada and even China continued to push the wheel of this development until research on four-dimensional began in London in 1996 when The idea of ​​live three-dimensional imaging emerged and would be for the fourth dimension, which is the temporal dimension, its role in giving a real, live image in a practical way, and that would not have been possible without the tremendous developments in computer science and the tremendous speed in conducting computer operations, hence the story of the beginning

 


How The ultrasound machine works





The ultrasound device sends high sound waves of 1 to 5 MHz in the form of pulses directed at the human body through a special sensor.

Ultrasound penetrates the human body to collide with the intervals and boundaries between different components of the body, such as fluids between the layers of the skin, the reduction between the skin layer and the bone.

Part of the ultrasound reflects the boundaries between the components of the human body and returns to the sensor while the rest of the ultrasound continues to penetrate deeper layers in the human body to reach other dividing boundaries and reflect them and bounce back to the sensor.

The sensor captures the ultrasound waves reflected successively from the layers of the human body that penetrated them and feeds the ultrasound system.

The ultrasound calculates the distance between the sensor and the skin layer or organ from which the supersonic waves are reflected using the speed of those waves in the human body of 1540m/s and using the time needed to return the ultrasound of the sensor, which is within the limits of 10-6sec.

The ultrasound shows the relationship between distance and the intensity of the signal reflected from the human body to be a two-dimensional distribution For distance and intensity

In any imaging session using the ultrasound device, millions of sound pulses that are sent to the body and received again to analyze and calculate the distance coming from these waves to give the image we see, and moving the sensor from one place to another can give images from a different perspective.


Ultrasound machine components Ultrasound machines consist of the following main parts:

  • The sensor.
  • The Central console.
  • Pulse control unit.
  • display.
  • Keyboard and mouse.
  •  Storage unit.
  • printer.

 

 

Ultrasound machine components

 

For Transducer, Probe is The sensor used in ultrasound machines is the main part of the device. The function of the sensor is to emit sound waves and monitor the echo reflected from their reflection. It can be likened to the mouth that speaks and the ear that hears the ultrasound machine. The idea of ​​the sensor work is based on an important physical phenomenon, which is the piezoelectric effect, which means the phenomenon of pressure to generate electricity, which was discovered by the scientist Pierre and Jacques Curie in 1880. It is a quartz crystal when an electric current is applied to the quartz crystal, the crystal changes shape quickly in the form of Very fast vibrations insist sound waves. The opposite happens when sound waves collide, causing the crystal to vibrate, and an electric current is generated from it. Thus, the same quartz crystal can be used to emit and receive ultrasound waves, while providing the sensor with a material that absorbs sound so that there is no interference between the sound and the reflected sound. The sensor is also provided with an acoustic lens to focus the sound waves emanating from the sensor.

These sensors are manufactured to take different shapes and sizes to be used according to the area to be imaged by the ultrasound device, and each sensor emits a different frequency of ultrasound waves to determine the depth that these waves must penetrate into the human body to obtain the required image with high accuracy. The probes can contain more than one quartz crystal and each quartz crystal must have its separate electrical circuit, and this type of probes equipped with more than one crystal is used to control the time difference of the sound waves emitted by each crystal, which helps to move the ultrasound waves inside the body.

 

Central processing unit (CPU)


This unit represents the mind of the device which is a computer connected to the sensor and provides it with electrical energy. The central control unit sends the electric current to the probe to emit ultrasound, as well as receive the electrical impulses generated by the sensor when it receives the ultrasound waves that are reflected back from the parts of the body to be photographed. The CPU performs all the calculations that make it possible to draw the relationship between the distance and the intensity of the feedback to form the image on the screen.

 

Transducer Pulse Controls

It provides the possibility for the doctor who operates the device or the technician to enter the value of the frequency and time of the sound pulses emanating from the sensor, which must be determined in advance according to the member to be photographed. This unit also controls the scanning mechanism used by the device to display the image.

 


Display / screen

It is a normal display screen like the one used in a computer that appears as a result of the calculations made by the CPU and it can be a black and white screen or a color screen according to the type and specifications of the ultrasound device.

 


Keyboard / Cursor

They are the tools used by the doctor or the technician to run the finishing program, to perform the operations of saving the image on a file, and to make some measurements to calculate the dimensions, using the image shown on the screen.

 


Disk Storage

The storage unit is used to save the images that appeared on the screen, and the storage media is the same as that used in the computer and includes hard disks, floppy disks, or CD or DVD. It is used to create a medical archive to keep track of the patient's condition at other times.


Printers

Mostly computer printers, but the type of thermal known as thermal printers



 Types of ultrasound machines


Types of ultrasound devices The devices that we have talked about so far are two-dimensional imaging devices, but there are two types of devices that use the same technologies, which are 3D imaging devices and Doppler ultrasound devices.

 

3D Ultrasound Imaging devices 


The idea of ​​this device is based on obtaining three-dimensional stereoscopic images of the internal organs of the human body or of the fetus by passing the sensor over the body or turning the sensor around the body to take several pictures and the computer creates holograms from them.

 

Doppler ultrasound devices


They are devices that use the Doppler phenomenon, and its idea is that the ultrasound waves reflected from the moving organs cause a change in the frequency between the returning ultrasound and the ultrasound waves falling on the body. From the frequency difference between the returning and outgoing waves, it is possible to accurately calculate the velocity of these organs, such as calculating the velocity of blood flow from the heart to the blood vessels and arteries.

 

Risks of using ultrasound Although 


No disease cases have been recorded in both humans or animals who have been subjected to ultrasound examinations and that these devices will remain in use as a means of diagnosis without surgery or the use of radioactive materials injected into the patient, it is advised to use them only whenever necessary. This is in order to avoid exposing parts of the human body to the sound energy generated by the ultrasound waves, which is easily absorbed in the water in living tissues, which causes a localized rise in temperature for the areas exposed to ultrasound.

 

 

Example of Ultrasound machines

 

Zonare ultrasound machine






Portable ultrasound machine





SONON 300L





General electric ultrasound machine (Ge logiq ultrasound)


Ge logiq e10





Ge logiq e9








Hitachi ultrasound machine



 

Conclusion

Developments and the future As computers developed, ultrasound devices developed in terms of speed and information storage capacity. Work is also underway to develop three-dimensional imaging using ultrasound and to produce small-sized devices. As for the strangest and interesting development, it is the transfer of images taken from the ultrasound device and feeding it to a helmet that the doctor puts on his head to adopt a virtual model of the human being that is photographed that enables the doctor to examine the internal parts of the human body.