The principle of ultrasound

Ultrasound has been used in medicine for at least 50 years. Its current importance can be judged by the fact that, of all the various kinds of diagnostic images produced in the world, 1 in 4 is an ultrasound scan. Ultrasound energy is exactly like sound energy, it is a variation in the pressure within a medium. The only difference is that the rate of variation of pressure, the frequency of the wave, is too rapid for humans to hear. Medical ultrasound lies within a frequency range of 30 kHz to 500 MHz. Generally, the lower frequencies (30 kHz to 3 MHz) are for therapeutic purposes, the higher ones (2 to 40 MHz) are for diagnosis (imaging and Doppler), the very highest (50 to 500 MHz) are for microscopic images. For diagnostic purposes two main techniques are employed; the pulse-echo method is used to create images of tissue distribution; the Doppler effect is used to assess tissue movement and blood flow.