Almost everyone is familiar with sonography at some level. Whether they’ve had one performed on them to check for heart defects, looked at their unborn baby on a monitor before it was born, or just seen one used on TV, ultrasounds are one of the most common and useful medical procedures today. And while many people know what they can do, and many are even familiar with the fact that both 2D and 3D images can now be created with them, most don’t realize that there are many different modes used in sonography. Here’s a look at some of the most commonly employed modes being used in sonography today.
- A Mode – A Mode sonography involves a single line being scanned throughout the body. Each echo bounced back to the transducer is plotted onto the screen. This mode is frequently utilized in most therapeutic ultrasounds as well as in diagnostics.
- B Mode – This mode uses a linear array of transducers instead of the single one that A Mode uses. It scans the body as a plane, allowing two dimensional images to be created.
- C Mode – This mode combines the previous two by using A Mode to gather data for a specific area and the utilizing B Mode to scan it into a 2D image.
- M Mode – This type of sonography can be used in A or B mode and is essentially video capture for ultrasounds. It utilizes quick bursts of sound waves and motion capture to film the interior of the body.
- Doppler Mode – By utilizing the Doppler effect, this mode allows sonogram technicians to visualize blood flow within a patient and is available in a number of different sub-types including Color Doppler, Continuous Doppler, and more.
- Pulse Inversion Mode – This mode is mainly used to view gasses within the body and works by sending two pulses with opposite signs and then subtracting them from one another.
There are other modes of sonography, but these are the most commonly used ones. Today’s sonography machines are usually capable of most or all of the regularly used modes and any education in the field should include a focus on using them all. Different areas of medicine will make use of the different types of sonography. While all of them involve the same basic principle of using high frequency sound waves to create images, each has different properties and specific techniques that are well worth knowing.
