Diagnostic Medical Ultrasound Awareness among Women in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA)

Ultrasound use in women is dominant in the areas of Obstetrics and Gynecology, breast imaging, and also musculoskeletal, thoracic and abdominal imaging. Women can do an US scan to diagnose lumps in the breast, to check and evaluate pregnancy (obstetrics), which is the most widely applicable in women [26], to evaluate the pelvic organs and the related structures in the pelvis (gynecology) [7,8]. The benefits and rational for the wide advocate of US use in women is due to the following: US use is relatively cheap and easily affordable and accessible, Ultrasound scans are done in real time, there is no use of ionizing radiations such as X-Rays with side effects, sectional images obtained give detailed information about the structures scanned, requires minimal patient preparations such as a filled urinary bladder for pelvic US and will also effectively diagnose soft tissue problems better than two dimensional plain radiography [1], besides its effectiveness in detecting an ectopic pregnancy [3].