What is ultrasound?

For most people, the word “ultrasound” is not unfamiliar, people are more or less exposed to ultrasound examination during hospital visits, and even repeatedly performed this examination, because ultrasound is harmless to the human body, the examination of the fetus has also become an indispensable item in prenatal examination, so what exactly is ultrasound, how does it work, and what are the functions that are still unknown to people. Today we are going to reacquaint ourselves with the common ultrasound. We often say “ultrasound”, actually refers to the ultrasound, the nature of its high-frequency changes in the pressure wave, because its frequency exceeds the upper limit of the threshold of adult hearing and named, ultrasound carries energy (acoustic energy) and can be transmitted to the object of propagation, echo (reflected sound) and penetrating sound waves contain acoustic physical information in the propagation material, the use of special receiving The use of special receiving devices to convert this information into visible images, we usually see the formation of ultrasound examination images, can more clearly display the internal structure of the human body and its changes, in order to determine whether there are pathological changes and the presence of abnormal substances. With the development of science and technology, modern ultrasound has been able to clearly display the internal tissue structure of the human body, the localization of lesions is also quite accurate, and dynamic changes can be observed in real time, so ultrasound can also be used as a real-time navigation technology means, under the guidance of ultrasound for further diagnosis and treatment of the lesion site. For example, if a lesion is found in the body, but we do not know the nature of the lesion, and to make a clear diagnosis, we need to perform a puncture biopsy, if there is no image guidance and blind puncture, it is likely to cause damage to the tissue around the lesion, and whether there is bleeding inside the puncture site can not be immediately judged. The specific practice is to avoid important organs and large vascular nerves under the guidance of ultrasound, the puncture needle is accurately penetrated into the lesion tissue to aspirate or cut out a small amount of cells or tissues for pathological examination, which avoids damage to the surrounding tissues to the greatest extent, and the puncture site and the puncture path can be observed immediately after the puncture, so that possible bleeding and other phenomena can be detected in time and dealt with in the shortest possible time. It can be treated in the shortest time to avoid more serious complications. In addition to diagnostic assistance, the use of real-time ultrasound navigation technology can also be related to treatment, modern science and technology has greatly promoted microwave and radiofrequency treatment, simply put, the use of a microwave needle or radiofrequency electrode needle puncture to the lesion, using the thermal effect to kill the lesion cells and tissues, for some diseases have reached and surgery comparable to the treatment effect. Such minimally invasive treatment requires precise puncture techniques, and ultrasound guidance in real time is the guarantee of precise puncture, and because the treated tissues can undergo immediate echogenic changes under ultrasound, the scope of treatment can also be controlled under ultrasound monitoring, which can effectively inactivate the diseased tissues and avoid thermal damage to the surrounding normal tissues, increasing the safety of treatment. As mentioned earlier, ultrasound can carry energy into the propagating object, thus causing the human tissue to generate heat, and if the energy of high-energy ultrasound is gathered in a focal point, it can produce high temperature that can inactivate the tissue, which is called focused ultrasound therapy (also known as sea knife), currently using this technology has been on uterine fibroids, adenomyosis, prostate disease and pancreatic cancer. This technology has been used to effectively treat and control uterine fibroids, adenomyosis, prostate disease and many advanced cancers including pancreatic cancer, and is less invasive and safer than other treatments.