What is an Ultrasound?

Veterinary Village Animal Health Hospital is the only 24-hour Emergency Hospital in Westchester County to have an on-site sonogram imagining suite. But why use Ultrasound imaging?

Ultrasound imaging, also called ultrasound scanning or sonography, involves exposing part of the body to high-frequency sound waves to produce pictures of the inside of the body. Ultrasound exams do not use ionizing radiation (x-ray). Because ultrasound images are captured in real-time, they can show the structure and movement of the body’s internal organs, as well as blood flowing through blood vessels. Ultrasound imaging can be performed using minimal restraint or sedation.

At the Veterinary Village in Westchester County, we often use ultrasound to guide a small needle to diseased areas of tissue for biopsy. Abdominal ultrasound imaging is performed to evaluate the:

• kidneys
• liver
• gallbladder
• pancreas
• spleen
• blood vessels of the abdomen

Ultrasound is used to help diagnose a variety of conditions, such as:

• abdominal pain
• pancreatitis
• enlarged abdominal organ
• stones in the kidney or bladder
• portosystemic shunts
• needle biopsies in which needles are used to extract a sample of cells from organs for laboratory testing.