Ultrasound Lab

Our radiology lab today was a hands on ultrasound demonstration. We had a class earlier in the week to talk about ultrasound technology, its applications in veterinary medicine, and some common terminology. I have spent hundreds of hours with boarded radiologists so it was pretty much all stuff I'd seen and heard before (I think I learned a couple of terms when it comes to artifacts-not explaining, you don't need to know haha).

We started by having Dr. Lawson perform an abdominal ultrasound on one of our classmate's dogs. She walked us through each step in the process, showed us the organs, and gave us tips and advice for performing an abdominal ultrasound. When she finished, she had each of us come up and find one of the abdominal organs (there are lots to choose from-kidneys, stomach, spleen, liver, urinary bladder, intestines, prostate, adrenal glands, vessels, basically everything in the abdominal cavity). I think for all but a couple of people, this was the first time they were performing their own ultrasound and they were very excited. I have done it before so it wasn't my first time, but it's still fun never the less. Dr. Lawson had me find the right kidney (and we happened upon the descending duodenum in the process). Our "patient" was VERY cooperative and easy going the entire time-such an awesome dog!!!

I enjoy radiology because you are presented with a set of images, and you describe the structures just as they are. It's fairly "black and white" (no pun intended) because you don't make inferences based on what you see. Radiographs, ultrasound, CT, and MRI are diagnostic tools, but they are not in and of themselves a diagnosis. As a student learning to interpret the images, it is very hard not to try and make inferences and impose potential external information on what you're looking at!

(Kidney-our's wasn't quite as well defined. Kidneys are my favorite because I personally think they look really cool!)

(For fun here's an abdominal radiograph showing both kidneys and the urinary bladder-the arrow is pointing to where a lymph node might be seen if enlarged.)

(Off topic but another one of my favorite images-can you guess what these are? Hint-count the skulls : D )