McCallister 1 Morgan McCallister Shaelynn Long-Kish Eng.111.

D02 10/28/2013 Looking into the Future of Ultrasounds

Ultrasounds are very useful in todays world to diagnose lots of things and for use in pregnancy. I think that ultrasound will start to advance a lot the more we find out about digital technology. Doctors have lots of things that they would like to happen with ultrasound. They have very important things that ultrasounds could be used for. I think that the ultrasounds could be used for way more things than what people can even think of at this point. Some new things that we are going to encounter with ultrasounds are ultrasounds transducers will be able to be put inside organs to see how they work from the inside and not just from the outside. They will start to make the transducers small enough to fit in organs. The new ultrasounds that can go inside of organs will help doctors understand organs better and to help diagnose diseases and illnesses. Doctors also want these so that they can see how organs are made and how they work. I think there definitely is potential for misuse with this concept. I believe that doctors will start to use this more to diagnose people instead of other things kind of as an easy way out. Especially if they start having handheld ultrasounds Doctors will just take that to show the patient what is wrong with them. I have read that 3D ultrasounds will be safer than 2D although that is not true because they arent stronger or more intense it just a different computer system that is being used. They

McCallister 2 have always just reflected off of sounds, movement, and density of the mass you are looking at. The 3D are also more useful. The advantage to having handheld devices is that the clinician can then take the ultrasound equipment directly to the patient wherever he or she is whether thats on the battlefield, in outer space, the scene of the accident or in the emergency room, Don Baker said. They do not cause harm to a baby either as some people say. They have very little to no risk of making the baby have any defects. I think the 3D will be very helpful compared to 2D for diagnosing certain things. I also have read that they are going to start making miniature transducers for ultrasounds so that they can be easily used and put inside of your body not necessarily organs. The transducers are also going to be made wireless so that they are easier to use and be able to move around than having this huge cord in the way all of the time or multiple cords. The doctors also want miniature ultrasound machines that are more easily moved around so they can have ultrasounds in more convenient places than having to go to an ultrasound room. I dont think though that ultrasound is better than any other technology in the medical field. I think that each technology has something that it is specialized for. Like ultrasounds are used for a lot of prenatal care and being able to see your fetus as it grows. Just like X-rays are used mostly for broken bones and really anything with bones. MRIs are used for muscles and tendons mostly. Molecular Ultrasound is used a lot to find cancers in your body because they run a dye through you and it connects to the spots that are affected and it shows in the ultrasounds the spots where is stuck to. Ultrasound can actually be used to help with pain in tendon and muscle sprains. I actually had ultrasound therapy on my achilles tendon when I partially tore it in basketball. It helps take the pain away. The ultrasound waves penetrate your skin with the gel medicine that is used and

McCallister 3 helps with the pain and swelling of the tendon or muscle. I think that is one effect it has with other conditions other than seeing into your body and doing diagnosing. Ultrasounds are more beneficial in some situations than x-rays because they can be done in the office and usually when you have problems with your bones it is because of the tissue around them like muscles and tendons. With x-ray you do not see that stuff you just see only bones. With ultrasound you can be looking at stuff like muscles and tendons. Also another thing is that ultrasound is better than is MRIs mostly because you can put the muscle or tendon under stress with ultrasound and monitor it. With MRI you have to lay completely still and you cant monitor the muscle and tendons while they are moving. Plus ultrasound is way cheaper than MRI. Sometimes this ultrasound technology is misused. Like with infertile women the doctor will just automatically do a vaginal ultrasound and tell the woman that she is infertile because the lining of the uterus is too thin. Instead of actually doing other tests with heredity. They also provide no proof of their tests or show the patient the results they just use it as an easy way out, giving a false diagnosis. This makes the patient give up because they are using the IVF doctor as a last resort to finding out if the person is infertile. So they take the doctors word and leave it at that not getting a second opinion or anything. I am very interested in this subject because I think that ultrasounds are amazing. I think that it is astounding that you can just use a little wand outside of your body to see everything inside. I couldnt believe all of the things ultrasound was used for. I also cant believe that doctors misuse this technology a lot throughout the world and for different things. I never knew that ultrasounds could be used like an MRI but the muscle or tendon could be moving and not

McCallister 4 still like the MRI. The technology behind this is crazy; who ever thought that you would be able to do that?

McCallister 5 Works Cited: 1. Orenstein, Beth W. "Sonographys Future and Past." SDMS News Wave. Ed. Chris Alcott. SDMS, Dec. 2008. Google. Web. 11 Nov. 2013. <http://www.sdms.org/members/news/NewsWave/NW-December-2008.pdf>

2. Willmann, JK, A Needles, and N Deshpande. "Molecular ultrasound imaging: current status and future directions." PubMed. National Institute of Health, July 2010. Google. Web. 11 Nov. 2013. <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20541656>

3. Nall, Dr. "The advantages of ultrasound over X-Ray and MRI." Ultrasonix. Ultrasonix, 22 Aug. 2012. Google. Web. 11 Nov. 2013. <http://www.ultrasonix.com/blog/ultrasound-xraymri>.