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External WebsitesSupervisor, Teaching Support Services; Director, Lecture-Demonstration Facility, Department of Physics, University of Maryland, College Park. Coauthor of The Physics of Sound.
Richard E. Berg Fact-checked by The Editors of Encyclopaedia BritannicaEncyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors.
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Although ultrasound competes with other forms of medical imaging, such as X-ray techniques and magnetic resonance imaging, it has certain desirable features—for example, Doppler motion study—that the other techniques cannot provide. In addition, among the various modern techniques for the imaging of internal organs, ultrasonic devices are by far the least expensive. Ultrasound is also used for treating joint pains and for treating certain types of tumours for which it is desirable to produce localized heating. A very effective use of ultrasound deriving from its nature as a mechanical vibration is the elimination of kidney and bladder stones.
Much medical diagnostic imaging is carried out with X-rays. Because of the high photon energies of the X-ray, this type of radiation is highly ionizing—that is, X-rays are readily capable of destroying molecular bonds in the body tissue through which they pass. This destruction can lead to changes in the function of the tissue involved or, in extreme cases, its annihilation.
One of the important advantages of ultrasound is that it is a mechanical vibration and is therefore a nonionizing form of energy. Thus, it is usable in many sensitive circumstances where X-rays might be damaging. Also, the resolution of X-rays is limited owing to their great penetrating ability and the slight differences between soft tissues. Ultrasound, on the other hand, gives good contrast between various types of soft tissue.
Ultrasonic scanning in medical diagnosis uses the same principle as sonar. Pulses of high-frequency ultrasound, generally above one megahertz, are created by a piezoelectric transducer and directed into the body. As the ultrasound traverses various internal organs, it encounters changes in acoustic impedance, which cause reflections. The amount and time delay of the various reflections can be analyzed to obtain information regarding the internal organs. In the B-scan mode, a linear array of transducers is used to scan a plane in the body, and the resultant data is displayed on a television screen as a two-dimensional plot. The A-scan technique uses a single transducer to scan along a line in the body, and the echoes are plotted as a function of time. This technique is used for measuring the distances or sizes of internal organs. The M-scan mode is used to record the motion of internal organs, as in the study of heart dysfunction. Greater resolution is obtained in ultrasonic imaging by using higher frequencies—i.e., shorter wavelengths. A limitation of this property of waves is that higher frequencies tend to be much more strongly absorbed.
Britannica Quiz All About Physics QuizBecause it is nonionizing, ultrasound has become one of the staples of obstetric diagnosis. During the process of drawing amniotic fluid in testing for birth defects, ultrasonic imaging is used to guide the needle and thus avoid damage to the fetus or surrounding tissue. Ultrasonic imaging of the fetus can be used to determine the date of conception, to identify multiple births, and to diagnose abnormalities in the development of the fetus.
Ultrasonic Doppler techniques have become very important in diagnosing problems in blood flow. In one technique, a three-megahertz ultrasonic beam is reflected off typical oncoming arterial blood with a Doppler shift of a few kilohertz—a frequency difference that can be heard directly by a physician. Using this technique, it is possible to monitor the heartbeat of a fetus long before a stethoscope can pick up the sound. Arterial diseases such as arteriosclerosis can also be diagnosed, and the healing of arteries can be monitored following surgery. A combination of B-scan imaging and Doppler imaging, known as duplex scanning, can identify arteries and immediately measure their blood flow; this has been extensively used to diagnose heart valve defects.
Using ultrasound with frequencies up to 2,000 megahertz, which has a wavelength of 0.75 micrometre in soft tissues (as compared with a wavelength of about 0.55 micrometre for light), ultrasonic microscopes have been developed that rival light microscopes in their resolution. The distinct advantage of ultrasonic microscopes lies in their ability to distinguish various parts of a cell by their viscosity. Also, because they require no artificial contrast mediums, which kill the cells, acoustic microscopy can study actual living cells.
Because ultrasound is a mechanical vibration and can be well focused at high frequencies, it can be used to create internal heating of localized tissue without harmful effects on nearby tissue. This technique can be employed to relieve pains in joints, particularly in the back and shoulder. Also, research is now being carried out in the treatment of certain types of cancer by local heating, since focusing intense ultrasonic waves can heat the area of a tumour while not significantly affecting surrounding tissue.
Trackless surgery—that is, surgery that does not require an incision or track from the skin to the affected area—has been developed for several conditions. Focused ultrasound has been used for the treatment of Parkinson’s disease by creating brain lesions in areas that are inaccessible to traditional surgery. A common application of this technique is the destruction of kidney stones with shock waves formed by bursts of focused ultrasound. In some cases, a device called an ultrasonic lithotripter focuses the ultrasound with the help of X-ray guidance, but a more common technique for destruction of kidney stones, known as endoscopic ultrasonic disintegration, uses a small metal rod inserted through the skin to deliver ultrasound in the 22- to 30-kilohertz frequency region.