SONOGRAPHY SPECIALITY AREAS
Many colleges, universites and hospitals offer sonography education for prospective clients. These students have to go through a two year or four year program which includes classes and practical experience. After their studies they are awarded a bachelor or associate degree.
The diagnostic medical sonographers can also specialize in various fields. These include obstetric and gynecologic sonography, which is basically the specialization of the female reproductive system, abdominal sonography which is a specialization of the liver, kidneys, gallbladder, spleen and pancreas, neurosonography where technicians specialize the brain and also breast sonography. These are not all as students can also specialize in various other fields like vascular sonography or cardiac sonography.
The students who specialize in the imaging of the female reproductive systems are called the obstetric and gynecologic sonographers. These sonographers also specialize in examining and looking at the fetus of a pregnant woman to look into her baby's health and growth and recommend to physicians if there is any abnormality or problem.
The abdominal sonographers check a patient's abdominal cavity, diagnose and also treat some conditions related to the patient's gallbladder, bile ducts, kidneys, liver, pancreas, spleen or his reproductive system. These sonographers also have the knowledge of some chest parts. They can do jobs mostly done by echocardiographers. They can scan and study some parts as well.
Another field of specialization is the neurosonography. The technicians who specialize in this field are called the neurosonographers. The neurosonographers study and look for any possible neurological or any nervous system related disorders in babies and small children. Sometimes, they also scan blood vessels if they find an abnormality which provides information of stroke and sickle cell anemia in babies. Neurosonographers also use transducers to perform their sonograms but use different frequencies and beam shapes because of the nervous system and brain. They basically use don't use the same frequencies and shapes mostly used by obstetric and abdominal sonographers.
Another field in which sonographers can specialize is the breasts and chest. The sonographers who specialize in this field are called breast sonographers. They diagnose and study various diseases of the breasts with the help of sonography. Sonography also helps mammography for diagnosing breast cancer in the patients. The breast sonography can also be used for some other things like tracking tumors or blood supply conditions. They also help with accurate biopsy of the breast tissues. These sonographers use special types of high frequency transducers which are specially developed for breast tissues.
Some students can also specialize in cardiovascular sonography. The technicians which specialize in this field are called the Cardiovascular Technologists. They perform various electrocardiograms, ambulatory monitoring and many other diagnosing examinations for the patients. These technicians also perform x-rays. These technicians mostly get jobs in hospitals, cardiologist clinics, cardiologist mobiles and some other medical facilities.
The American Registry for Diagnostic Medical Sonography is an independent organization which looks over examinations and awards in various fields of diagnostic medical sonography, diagnostic cardiac sonography and vascular technology. According to ARDMS there are 60,000 globally recognized sonographists. The credentials awarded by ARDMS include Registered Diagnostic Medical Sonographer, Registered Diagnostic Cardiac Sonographer, Registered Vascular Technologist and the Registered Physician in Vascular Interpretation.