Ultrasound machines have many uses in the medical community. The machine utilizes sound waves to make a visible picture of the insides of your body. They are effective in most areas but are not effective for all body parts. It is considered a safe procedure with little to no adverse effects. It generally requires no prep and is well tolerated by most people.
One of the biggest applications for ultrasound is in sonograms on pregnant women. The procedure allows the physician to view the baby and make sure that it is growing appropriately without any untoward birth defects. Of course it cannot see all defects but it can detect a large number of them. You can sometimes determine a baby’s sex if it is turned just right in the uterus. Today’s technology is getting so advanced that they now offer a 3D version of the ultrasound which provides the parents with a portrait of their child in the uterus.
Other uses of an ultrasound are to rule out things like ovarian cysts, appendicitis, kidney stones and even heart problems. There are so many things that they can use the ultrasound machine to review. By doing the ultrasound first other more expensive types of scans can be eliminated or at least only used when a more in depth study is needed based on what was found when an ultrasound was done.
So you can see why it saves both time and money to utilize the information that can be gathered by ultrasound prior to ordering other tests and scans. In these times of soaring medical costs this procedure is a very valuable tool to have in our health care diagnostic arsenal. The biggest savings is to the patient themselves, the ability to go through ultrasound versus other more uncomfortable and time consuming procedures is a relief indeed.
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