Ultrasound Vs Digital Images

Every day, an image saves someone’s life. How? A diagnostic image can provide doctors with knowledge about a patient’s health. Images are an innovation that has changed the way people live, not only in the health industry but in their personal life, too. They allow people to capture memories and share their experiences with others. Digital and diagnostic are two types of images; diagnostic images are used by doctors while digital images are used by most people. The two types of images are created drastically different; digital is made from light whereas ultrasound, a type of diagnostic image, is made from sound. Although digital images have an important purpose, ultrasound images are the more important revolution. For instance, ultrasound images …show more content…
For example, ultrasound images have changed the way that the parents learn about the child’s gender. Before the creation, parents had to wait until the birth to learn about the gender, although now, the parents can discover the gender at 18-20 weeks (O’Brien, 2011, para.13). While, this doesn’t usually change the parent’s mind about the child, it is very helpful information when it comes to purchases. For example, the parent can now buy pink or blue clothes rather than gender neutral colors like gray. Also, it lets the parent decorate the room for the certain gender of the baby. As interesting and useful as that may be, ultrasound can actually provide doctors with more important information. For instance, ultrasound images inform the doctors of any diseases that the baby might have. Specifically, doctors can use ultrasound around 11 and 13 weeks to evaluate the person’s “...risk of having a baby with Down syndrome, trisomy 18 (another chromosomal abnormality), or certain heart defects” (O’Brien, 2011, para.9). This lets the parents decide whether or not they are going to continue with the pregnancy or have an abortion. Also, it allows the parents to prepare for the birth of the child, the parents might want to learn more about their baby’s disease. In addition, this ultrasound can tell the parents whether or not their baby is going to survive or …show more content…
A cyst is usually a sac in the body that is full of fluids, depending on the type of cyst that it is. Before ultrasound pictures, doctors did not know a lot of information about cyst; the doctor did not know the cyst location or the size of it because they did not know what it looked like. Now, sonographers can learn about this information and if there even is a cyst. The use of ultrasound picture can tell the sonographer if the person has a cyst on their ovaries, breast, and several other parts of the body. Cysts are sometimes identified from other diagnostic images such as X-rays, CT Scans, or MRI depend on the presumed location of the cyst. Anyhow, ovarian cyst are usually not dangerous but if the cyst remains on the ovary or if it is cancerous then the doctor might decide to remove it (Kenny, 2015, para.21). Ultrasound images inform the doctor if the if the cyst remain on the ovary and it informs the doctors on its exact location and its size; the size and location are other factor consider when deciding if the cyst should be removed or not (Kenny, 2015, para.19). Another cyst found by ultrasound pictures is breast cyst; this is a very important cyst to watch out for. Breast cyst are very common but they need to be tested because it could be cancerous; breast cyst are not cancerous but are a sign of breast cancer (Halls, 2000, para.5). Breast