Ultrasound Machines
Ultrasound can be used as a diagnostic or screening tool to confirm medical disorders and to assist in performing medical procedures and treatment. Buying a used ultrasound machine from a reputable medical equipment dealer offers substantial savings over buying new. Our pre-owned ultrasound machines are fully reconditioned and guaranteed to perform at the manufacturers original specifications. We carry a large selection of portable, and fixed ultrasound equipment for performing cardiac, echo, vascular and OB/GYN studies. We carry 2D, 3D and 4D ultrasound machines and probes. Be sure you check our selection of used medical equipment and feel free to call us with any questions.
Ultrasound Machines Questions & Answers
Ultrasound is a sound wave with high frequency (from 20 kHz up to several gigahertz) created thanks to piezoelectric effect. The images obtained thanks to ultrasound waves are known as sonograms. They are created by sending pulses of ultrasound from the probe placed directly on the skin or inside a body opening (for example vagina, rectum, esophagus). The sound waves travel into your body and hit a boundary between tissues (fe: between muscle and bone). Some of the ultrasound waves get refelected to the probe, while some travel to other tissue boundaries. All reflected signals are picked up by the probe and transferred into central processing unit (CPU), which calculates the distance from the probe to the tissue or organ (boundaries) using the speed of sound in tissue (5,005 ft/s or1,540 m/s) and the time of the each echo's return (usually on the order of millionths of a second). In the end the machine forms a 2-D picture based on distances and intensities of the reflected echoes.
- Handheld transducer probes, which send ultrasonic sound waves (above the range of human hearing) ceated within thanks to piezoelectric effect, and receive them to convert the echoes into electrical signals. They come in many shapes and sizes which determine the field of view, the frequency of emitted sound waves, and consequently how deep the sound waves will penetrate.
- The central processing unit (CPU), which performs all computations, supplies the software, stores the processed data contains the electrical power supplies for itself and the transducer probe;
- Transducer pulse controls, which change the amplitude, frequency, and duration of the pulses;
- Monitor, which displays the reconstructed image;
- Keyboard/Cursor, which help to input data, control the screen and take measurements from the monitor;
- The printer, which prints an image with annotations.
Ultrasound imaging is a medical tool that can help a physician evaluate, diagnose and treat medical conditions. Common ultrasound imaging procedures include:
- Abdominal ultrasound - to visualize abdominal tissues and organs
- Bone sonometry - to assess bone fragility
- Breast ultrasound - to show breast tissue
- Ophthalmic ultrasound - to visualize ocular structures
- Thyroid ultrasound – to visualize the organ
- Testicular ultrasound: to visualize testes and diagnose testicular masses, torsion or infection.
- Doppler ultrasound - to visualize blood flow
- Echocardiogram – to picture the heart
- FAST examination – to screen a trauma patients and determine presence of blood around the heart or abdominal organs
- Fetal ultrasound – to see fetus in pregnant woman
- Doppler fetal heart rate monitors - to monitor fetal heart beat)
- Contrast ultrasonography – the echogenicity of blood is enhanced by contract as encapsulated, gaseous microbubbles administered intravenously. It is usually used for hypervascular metastatic tumour recognition.
- Elastography – it determines stiffness and elastic properties of soft tissues like liver, breast
- Interventional ultrasonography - it includes biopsies, guided needle placements, intrauterine blood transfusion, percutaneous ethanol injection to treat thyroid cysts or metastatic thyroid cancer neck lymph nodes, lithotripsy to break up kidney stones, high intensity focused ultrasound for cancer treatment or targeted drug delivery
A-mode: also known as Amplitude Modulation is the simplest type of ultrasound. IIt displays amplitude spikes of different heights. It consists of a x and y axis, where x represents the depth and y represents the Amplitude. It is usually used to assess the optic nerve during ophthalmology study.
- B-mode or 2D mode: also known as Brightness Mode) is the most common type of ultrasound. The brightness depends upon the amplitude or intensity of the echo. It consists of a x and z axis, where x represents the depth and z represents echo intensity or amplitude. These modes create the image of big and small dots which symbolize strong and weak echo.
- B-flow mode digitally highlights weak flow reflectors (erythrocytes) while suppressing the signals from the stationary tissue. It can visualize flowing blood and surrounding stationary tissues simultaneously.
- M-mode: also known as Motion Mode ultrasound, which emit pulses in quick succession – each time an image is taken and over time a video is created. This can be accomplished by recording the amplitude and rate of motion in real time by repeatedly measuring the distance of the object from the single transducer at a given moment. It is mainly use for moving structure analysis, like heart.
- Doppler mode: makes use of the Doppler effect in measuring and visualizing movement of blood. Usually velocity information is presented as a color-coded overlay on top of a B-mode image.