Why you should love ultrasound

In homage to the upcoming 'day of love', otherwise known as Valentine's day I am going to briefly discuss the use of veterinary ultrasound for cardiac work. It is not just humans that can have echocardiograms - so can a wide variety of animals! The full version of this article can be found at the Vet Image Solutions website.

A heart ultrasound scan is also known as an echocardiogram and can be used to visualise heart structures, assess heart function and aid in identifying problems such as heart disease. Veterinary ultrasound imaging can also be used to detect a heartbeat during pregnancy, which can be reassuring for breeder/farmer/veterinarian (whichever is applicable).

Echocardiography cannot be discussed without mentioning B-mode and M-mode. The former returns an image of the organ or structure under investigation whereas the latter has the ability to show heart movement.

For more information on this and many other topics relating to veterinary ultrasound, why not visit our website?

This article was written by Dr Melissa Fletcher (@DrMFletcher) for Vet Image Solutions (@VIS_UK).