Veterinary Ultrasound - what do you need to know?

For those specialised within the veterinary field, the limitations of working with animal species are all too clear. Human research has adopted the role of the ‘benchmark’ by which veterinary research is compared, despite the importance of the latter in its own right. Additionally, the number of available reagents for researchers within this field are considerably less than those working on humans.  In contrast, ultrasound imaging has somewhat bypassed these limitations.

A number of factors must be considered when carrying out ultrasonography. These include the most appropriate ultrasound equipment to use; different machines are suitable for use on different species and are also dependent on the needs of the individual. A number of these machines can be found at www.vetimagesolutions.co.uk, and include the Sonoscape A6v, Landwind C30 and the KX5200v scanner.  Furthermore, the lack of information regarding certain animal species should be taken into account, which can result in difficulties when attempting to identify a particular organ by ultrasound can be challenging. The size of the patient is also a concern when attempting to carry out animal ultrasonography. It is easy to appreciate the difficulty of scanning a small animal such as a rat, compared to larger animals including horses and elephants, with a suitable probe should be chosen prior to scanning.

In conclusion, despite our knowledge and research concerning the veterinary species being hindered when compared to humans, advances in technology have greatly increased the availabiltiy of ultrasound equipment to the practitioner. However, increasing our knowledge to that which is currently available for humans is desirable, and in this day and age, should be easily achieveable.

Written by Melissa Robbin, who has submitted her PhD on Reproductive Immunology and wishes to pursue a career in science writing.