abdominal ultrasound

Meaning of abdominal ultrasound: An abdominal ultrasound uses sound waves to create real time images of organs inside the abdomen for evaluation of pain or suspected disease.

Definition of abdominal ultrasound

An abdominal ultrasound is an imaging procedure used to examine organs within the abdomen, such as the liver, gallbladder, pancreas, kidneys, and spleen. A handheld transducer is pressed against the skin and sends high frequency sound waves into the body, which bounce off internal tissues and organs and return as echoes.

A computer processes these returning echoes to build a real time picture called a sonogram, allowing a clinician to observe an organ's size, shape, and structure and to look for abnormalities such as a mass, fluid collection, or blockage. Because the images update continuously, an abdominal ultrasound can also show movement, such as blood flow within a vessel or the motion of the gallbladder wall.

An abdominal ultrasound uses sound waves rather than ionizing radiation, distinguishing it from a computed tomography scan, and it does not require the contrast dye that some other abdominal imaging studies use, though certain structures are seen more clearly with one method than another.