Starting September 23, 2022, the RHU BioTech Student Society- IEEE EMBS (Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society) kicked off their activities by demonstrating medical imaging to biomedical engineering students and students in other programs. They borrowed an ultrasound and used it to demonstrate vascularity in different body areas (vascular sonography).

Students learned that the machine is the sonograph, the examiner is the sonographer, the image is a sonogram, and the process is sonography. They explored the ultrasound principle, how it functions and how waves interact with different tissue densities to produce no echo (anechoic), lot of echo (hyperechoic), and little echo (hypoechoic) images on the screen after being processed by complicated electronics.

During the demonstration, students visualized the vessels in the neck (carotid artery, internal and external jugulars, and the brachial). They also overviewed different imaging modes, M-Mode, B-Mode, Dopper and Colour Doppler, and different settings for near and far field gains, depth, penetration vs resolution, and exam types. Students gave it a shot to explore their own vascularity.

Finally, they examined the hardware (transducer or probe and the machine itself), the frequency ranges of the different probes (linear, curvilinear, phased array). They also tested the importance of ultrasound gel and orientation markers.

Sonography has many advantages. Having no ionizing radiation, it can be repeated with no harm done to the body. It is cheap, accessible, and works for both anatomy and physiology. Users can investigate the size, shape, and orientation of the anatomy with different modes, and check if it is functioning well or investigate abnormalities. However, sonography is operator dependent. If the examiner isn’t experienced in the process, it can be lengthy, become uncomfortable, and the images might turn out to be of low quality and accuracy.