New Form of Internal Imaging

A “SONIC flashlight” was created at the University of Pittsburgh by a biomedical engineer that is sort of like a set of x-ray glasses for the skin. It makes the body seem translucent by merging the visual skin of the patient with a live ultrasound scan and allows one to see blood vessels, muscle tissue, and other internal anatomy. It makes a translucent ultrasound image in 3D in real time. This new form of being able to view internal anatomy without invasive procedures, such as inserting a needle into a vein, but doctors will have to look at a display when using the new technology, which will cause a displaced sense of hand-eye coordination. The technology relies on the geometric relationship between the monitor displaying the slices, the ultrasound slices being scanned, and the mirror that is used in the process.

This is all amazing because it is a success in the field of direct vision techniques of viewing patients’ internal anatomy. It also allows a use of fewer resources, such as the special film that the slices are printed on, and also the SONIC ultrasound have the potential to replace multiple imaging machines, such as ultrasounds, x-rays, MRI’s, CT scans, and PET emissions. This would save a lot of money in manufacturing just one machine instead of many and could help provide people with more of this service since the procedure should become cheaper. It will also be useful because, as it was already stated, is non-invasive and could help people with diseases that affect blood clotting, problems with the immune system, or allergic reactions to the mediums used in other imaging techniques (not to mention that patients and technicians will not have the risk of being exposed to more harmful types of electromagnetic radiation). All in all, this technology seems like it an overall positive and does not have any particular hindering downsides to it compared to other techniques.

Source: http://www.bio-medicine.org/medicine-news/New-form-of-ultrasonic-vision-4320-1/