Medical Ultrasound

sound waves · medical imaging · pregnancy

Sound wave pictures. Ultrasound machines send sound waves into your body, and when they bounce off organs and muscles, the machine catches them to create pictures. Doctors can see things like your heart, liver, kidneys, and even babies growing before they're born.

Seeing babies safely. Pregnant women get ultrasound pictures called sonograms to check on their baby's health. This was one of the first ways doctors used ultrasound, and it's still a favorite use today because it's completely safe.

Looking inside without cutting. Instead of surgery, doctors use ultrasound to peek at tendons, muscles, blood vessels, and joints without making any cuts. It helps them spot problems like injuries or growths.

Bouncing and measuring. The ultrasound machine measures how sound waves bounce back at different speeds from different parts of your body. These measurements help doctors figure out sizes, speeds of blood flow, and other important details.

Sound you can hear. Sometimes doctors turn the ultrasound bounces into sounds you can actually hear, which helps them learn even more about what's happening inside your body.