Thursday, March 29, 2012

Medical terms for sonography

For every examination a sonographer is required to describe the normal and abnormal things they see after an examination. Here are the words they use and what their definition is.

_Anechoic or Sonolucent: Without internal echoes; the structure is fluid-filled and transmits sound easily.

_Echogenic or Hyperechoic: Echo producing structure; reflects sound with a brighter intensity.

_Enhancement , increased through-transmission: sound that travels through an anechoic (fluid filled) substance and is not attenuated; there is increased brightness directly beyond the posterior border of the anechoic structure as compared with the surrounding are.

_Fluid-fluid level: interface between two fluids with different acoustic characteristics; this level will change with patient position.

_Heterogeneous: not uniform in texture or composition.

_Homogeneous: Completely uniform in texture or composition.

_Hypoechoic: Low-level echoes within a structure.

_Infiltrating: Usually refers to a diffuse disease process or metastatic disease.

_Irregular borders: Borders are not well defined, are ill defined, or are not present.

_Isoechoic: Very close to the normal parenchyma echogenicity pattern.

_Loculated mass: Well defined borders with internal echoes; the septa may be thin (likely benign) or thick (likely malignant).

_Shadowing: The sound beam is attenuated by a solid or calcified object; this reflection or absorption may be partial or complete; air bubbles in the duodenum may cause a "dirty shadow" to occur secondary to reflection; a stone would cause a sharp shadow posterior to its border.

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