Question

How does an ultrasound scanner work? Explain. Write one use of it.

Answer 1

An ultrasound scanner works by sending high frequency sound pulses into a patient’s body. The sound waves travel through the patient’s body, passing through different types of tissue.

The parts of an ultrasound scanner are given below:-

1. The transducer probe:- Is the part of the machine that produces the sound waves and receives the echoes. It consists of one or more crystals in a plastic housing.

2. The transducer pulse controls:-It allow the ultrasonographer operating the machine to alter the frequency and length of the ultrasound pulses to suit any given conditions.

3. The Central processing unit:- Is a computer. It sends the electrical signals to the transducer probe and receives signals back from it.

4. The display:- Is usually a high definition computer monitor. Ultrasound images are displayed using a grey scale.

5. The keyboard and cursor:- allow the ultrasonographer to add notes to the images as they are displayed.

6. Disc storage:- allows scans to be stored digitally and kept with a patient’s medical records.

7. A printer:- is usually attached to the machine so that hard copies of images can be printed off as required.