This paper is based on material presented at the start of a Health Protection Agency meeting on ultrasound and infrasound. In answering the question 'what is ultrasound?', it shows that the simple description of a wave which transports mechanical energy through the local vibration of particles at frequencies of 20 kHz or more, with no net transport of the particles themselves, can in every resp...

BACKGROUND Ultrasound measurement of gastric emptying has potential advantages over scintigraphy, but there is little information about its accuracy. AIMS The relation between ultrasonographic measurements of antral area and (a) scintigraphic measurements of gastric emptying and intragastric distribution of liquids (b) postprandial satiation, were evaluated. SUBJECTS Seven normal volunteers...

HYPOTHESIS Incidental thyroid masses identified during carotid duplex ultrasonography may represent clinically significant lesions. DESIGN AND SETTING Retrospective review of a prospective database in a tertiary care referral center. PATIENTS A total of 2004 consecutive patients from January, 2000, through January, 2002, undergoing carotid duplex ultrasonography. INTERVENTIONS After bilat...

BACKGROUND Measurement of ovarian follicles by ultrasound is common practice in fertility treatment. However, the effect of the speed of sound is not taken into account. We present results from a study aimed at measuring this. METHODS The speed of sound was measured in samples of follicular fluid aspirated from patients undergoing fertility treatment. The transmitted and received pulses from ...

References 1. Curry GR, White DN: Color coded ultrasonic differential velocity arterial scanner (Echoflow). Ultrasound Med Biol 4: 27-35, 1978 2. Barnes RW, Russell HE, Bone GE, Slaymaker EE: Doppler cere­ brovascular examination: Improved results with refinements in tech­ nique. Stroke 8: 468-71, 1977 3. Gee W, Mehigan JT, Wylie EJ: Measurement of collateral cerebral hemispheric blood pressure...

PURPOSE: In scoliosis monitoring, tracked ultrasound has been explored as a safer imaging alternative to traditional radiography. The use of ultrasound in spinal curvature measurement requires identification of vertebral landmarks such as transverse processes, but as bones have reduced visibility in ultrasound imaging, skeletal landmarks are typically segmented manually, which is an exceedingly...

OBJECTIVE Our aims were to: establish the clinical significance of ultrasound, thermography, photography and subepidermal moisture (SEM) measurement; determine the accuracy of ultrasound, thermography, photography and SEM measurement in detecting skin/tissue damage; determine the relative accuracy of one of these assessment methods over another; make recommendations for practice pertaining to a...

INTRODUCTION Rapid and accurate determination of gestational age may be vital to the appropriate care of the critically ill pregnant patient. Before the use of emergency ultrasound, physical examination of fundal height (FH) in the nonverbal patient was considered the quickest method to estimate gestational age. We conducted a prospective, observational study of the performance of bedside sonog...

References 1. Curry GR, White DN: Color coded ultrasonic differential velocity arterial scanner (Echoflow). Ultrasound Med Biol 4: 27-35, 1978 2. Barnes RW, Russell HE, Bone GE, Slaymaker EE: Doppler cere­ brovascular examination: Improved results with refinements in tech­ nique. Stroke 8: 468-71, 1977 3. Gee W, Mehigan JT, Wylie EJ: Measurement of collateral cerebral hemispheric blood pressure...

Conventional methods used for measuring regional renal blood flow, such as laser-Doppler flowmetry, are highly invasive, and each measurement is restricted to a discrete location. The aim of this study was to determine whether ultrasound imaging in conjunction with enhanced contrast agent (microbubbles; Vevo MicroMarker, VisualSonics) could provide a viable noninvasive alternative. This was ach...