Ultrasound: MedlinePlus Medical Test (2023)

FAQs

Can you trust ultrasound results? ›

Ultrasounds may be used to diagnose birth defects, but they are not always accurate. It's thought that a second-trimester ultrasound, often done between 16 and 20 weeks, may detect three out of four major birth defects.

When your ultrasound is finished, a radiologist will review your ultrasound results and send your healthcare provider a written report within 24 hours. Ask your healthcare provider how and when you will get the results from your ultrasound.

A 2015 study found that ultrasound technicians correctly predict a baby's assigned sex nearly 100% of the time after 14 weeks gestation.

The chances of an error with ultrasound are up to 5 percent, says Schaffir. An ultrasound can be between 95 to 99 percent accurate in determining sex, depending on when it's done, how skilled the sonographer is and whether baby is in a position that shows the area between their legs. Mistakes can also be made.

Similarly to other diagnostic tools, errors may occur in ultrasound examinations. They generally result from inappropriate techniques, which do not conform to current standards, or erroneous interpretation of obtained images.

The test typically takes less than 30 minutes to complete. You will not get results from the technician. They will send the images to your doctor to review. Your doctor's office will contact you with the results.

They will call you to discuss the findings, or to schedule a follow-up appointment. Should anything abnormal turn up on the ultrasound, you may need to undergo other diagnostic techniques, such as a CT scan, MRI, or a biopsy sample of tissue depending on the area examined.

When radiologists and other physicians notice them, they must inform the patient. If they fail to do so, they could be putting the patient at serious risk. Tragically, there is no law in Indiana requiring radiologists to notify patients of abnormal test results even though they are required to do so in other states.

Ultrasound images are not as detailed as those from CT or MRI scans. Ultrasound cannot tell whether a tumor is cancer. Its use is also limited in some parts of the body because the sound waves can't go through air (such as in the lungs) or through bone.

Ultrasound is used for many reasons, including to: View the uterus and ovaries during pregnancy and monitor the developing baby's health. Diagnose gallbladder disease. Evaluate blood flow.

Can you tell if something is cancerous from an ultrasound? ›

Because sound waves echo differently from fluid-filled cysts and solid masses, an ultrasound can reveal tumors that may be cancerous. However, further testing will be necessary before a cancer diagnosis can be confirmed.

It's important to know there is a recognised 15% error in ultrasound fetal weight estimation. This means your baby can be either 15% smaller or 15% larger than the estimated weight given at your ultrasound. Ultrasound scans are generally more accurate for assessing your baby's size during the first half of pregnancy.

The errors in individual fetal measurements and estimated fetal weight (EFW) have been well documented. For example, 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) for abdominal circumference (AC), head circumference (HC) and femur length (FL) of ±9%, ±5% and ±11%, respectively, and for EFW of up to ±50% have been reported.

Thus, abdominal sonography has a false-negative rate of 4.3%. Lipiodol CT is associated with a significant false-positive rate of 43.7%.

“Plenty of patients ask, but techs should not give information and should not even react to what they're seeing on the image,” Edwards said. “They aren't doctors, and while they do know how to get around your anatomy, they aren't qualified to diagnose you.”

If a doctor or radiologist misreads an x-ray, CT scan, MRI, or ultrasound, an injury or illness may go undiagnosed. Misreading a diagnostic image might mean that the radiologist failed to notice an abnormal growth or noticed but incorrectly identified it.

Abnormal seems to imply that something is wrong with your baby. But what it means is that the test has shown something the doctor wants to take a closer look at. And that's what happens next. Your doctor will talk to you about what further test or tests you may need.

Sex determination of a baby happens during fertilization, and it can't change during your pregnancy. However, there's a slim chance that the provider could read the 20-week ultrasound incorrectly and tell you you're having a girl (or a boy) when the opposite is true.

Yes, the medical community widely agrees that ultrasound is an accurate, safe test when performed by trained professionals. Unlike X-rays, ultrasound does not use radiation (which can cause medical issues at high doses).

Drink plenty of fluids

Drink plenty of water in the DAYS leading up to your ultrasound. This simple tasks is one of the most important factors in determining the quality of pictures you will receive. Drinking water will increase the quality and clarity of your amniotic fluid which is like the “window” to view baby.

Why do you have to drink water before an ultrasound? ›

It is difficult for us to visualize your bladder with ultrasound unless it is full of fluid. Having a full bladder will also push the bowel out of the way and help to visualize other pelvic structures more clearly.

You usually need to avoid food and drinks for 8 to 12 hours before an abdominal ultrasound. This is called fasting. Fasting helps prevent gas buildup in the belly area, which could affect the results.

Do healthcare providers call you if test results show bad news? They may. If results are concerning, they may call you or have a receptionist call to schedule an appointment. 4 A healthcare provider may also call to assure you everything is okay or discuss any needed follow-up tests.

If your ultrasound is being performed by a technician, the technician most likely will not be allowed to tell you what the results mean. In that case, you will have to wait for your doctor to examine the images. Ultrasounds are used during pregnancy to measure the fetus and rule out or confirm suspected problems.

There are three main reasons a doctor might order tests for you. One reason would be to diagnose you. The second reason would be to measure the effectiveness of a treatment. The third reason would be to monitor a chronic illness or condition.

How long does it take to get results? The results of the scan usually take 24 hours. A radiologist, a physician who specializes in reading and interpreting CT scan and other radiologic images, will review your scan and prepare a report that explains them.

The swift transmission of diagnostic information is important to both patients and referring physicians. The results from an MRI scan are typically interpreted within 24 hours, and the scans themselves are usually given immediately to the patient on a disc after the MRI is complete.

What should I do if I can't get a diagnosis? If you think you have an underlying disease that hasn't been diagnosed, you can ask your primary care provider for a referral to a specialist. And if you or your doctor suspect the disease could be genetic, you can always make an appointment at a medical genetics clinic.

Vessels in which blood is flowing are colored red for flow in one direction and blue for flow in the other, with a color scale that reflects the speed of the flow. Because different colors are used to designate the direction of blood flow, this Doppler technique simplifies interpretation of the ultrasound data.

Ultrasound (US) is a sensitive method for detecting joint/tendon inflammation in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Subclinical inflammation is often found in patients with RA in composite score remission.

What is a failed ultrasound? ›

First-trimester pregnancy failure is defined by ultrasound as a lack of sonographic evidence of current or expected viability.

Diagnostic ultrasound and/or sonography is considered a safe, noninvasive procedure by most every medical community, in part, because it uses low-power sound waves. No major medical source in the U.S. has cited that there are any direct risks from a diagnostic ultrasound exam harmful enough to prevent it's use.

The test can provide information about a baby's growth, development, and overall health. Diagnostic ultrasound is used to view and provide information about other internal parts of the body. These include the heart, blood vessels, liver, bladder, kidneys, and female reproductive organs.

The primary disadvantage of sonography is that this technique is highly operator dependent, particularly in the breast. However, if one can overcome the barrier of operator dependence, then one potentially may reduce the cost of diagnosis of breast cancers.

Cancerous tissue also shows up as white on a mammogram. Therefore it is sometimes hard to distinguish dense tissue from cancerous tissue. On an ultrasound cancerous tissue shows up black and dense tissue is still white, therefore cancers are easier to distinguish.

Ultrasound can usually help differentiate between benign and malignant tumours based on shape, location, and a number of other sonographic characteristics. If the ultrasound is inconclusive, your doctor may request follow-up ultrasound to monitor the tumor or a radiologist may recommend a biopsy.

A third color, usually green or yellow, is often used to denote areas of high flow turbulence. These colors are user-definable and may be reversed, however this is generally inadvisable as it may confuse later readers of the images.

Ultrasounds may be used to diagnose birth defects, but they are not always accurate. It's thought that a second-trimester ultrasound, often done between 16 and 20 weeks, may detect three out of four major birth defects.

Ultrasound is not very reliable for estimating fetal weight near term. For a 9-pound baby, an ultrasound's predictive accuracy is typically 15 to 20 percent off. Which means we may over- or underestimate by more than a pound.

Sometimes the dates can be more than a week off and sometimes even as much as 4 weeks. An early obstetric ultrasound performed at approximately 8 weeks where a crown rump length (the CRL) is measured precisely predicts an estimated due date accurately.

Can ultrasound head measurements be wrong? ›

Overall, sonographic HC measurements consistently underestimated actual HC measured postnatally (mean simple error, - 13.6 mm; 95% CI, - 13.2 to - 13.9), and the difference increased with gestational age.

Genetic factors and maternal conditions such as obesity or diabetes can cause fetal macrosomia. Rarely, a baby might have a medical condition that makes him or her grow faster and larger. Sometimes it's unknown what causes a baby to be larger than average.

Expectant mothers can determine the sex of their babies by undergoing an ultrasound test. Most pregnant women use this method as it gives a more accurate result. In addition, specialists, such as sonographers, radiologists, and obstetricians, perform the test making it safer compared to other baby gender test options.

An ultrasound creates pictures of the baby. This test is usually completed around 18–20 weeks of pregnancy. The ultrasound is used to check the size of the baby and looks for birth defects or other problems with the baby.

As pregnancy progresses, the accuracy of an ultrasound for predicting due dates decreases. Between 18 and 28 weeks of gestation, the margin of error increases to plus or minus two weeks. After 28 weeks, the ultrasound may be off by three weeks or more in predicting a due date.

In some cases, the imaging results may be misread (misclassified) or turn out to be nothing at all. One French study conducted in 2014 reported that 8.8% of congenital defects picked up by an ultrasound were wholly incorrect (false positive) and that 9.2% were misclassified.

A study published in 2016 found that first-trimester ultrasounds were capable of finding anomalies. The researchers were successful in finding birth defects in 30 percent of women at low risk and 60 percent of women at high risk of having babies with anomalies.

Yes, the medical community widely agrees that ultrasound is an accurate, safe test when performed by trained professionals. Unlike X-rays, ultrasound does not use radiation (which can cause medical issues at high doses).

Smoking, drinking alcohol, or taking certain drugs during pregnancy. Having certain medical conditions, such as being obese or having uncontrolled diabetes before and during pregnancy. Taking certain medications, such as isotretinoin (a drug used to treat severe acne). Having someone in your family with a birth defect.

If some structures were not well seen during the first ultrasound, or there are other concerns, you will be advised to have a Level 2 ultrasound. This does not necessarily mean that there is something wrong with your baby or your pregnancy. Level 2 ultrasounds are generally done in the same way as Level 1 ultrasounds.

What does red mean on an abdominal ultrasound? ›

What does red or blue mean on an ultrasound? Red and blue colors represent the movement of the blood. Blue represents blood flow away from the probe, while red represents the blood flowing towards the probe.

In general, a NEGATIVE scan is good news which means that the scan is normal. An Ultrasound Scan may be POSITIVE for a specific condition, for example, gallstones, which means that an abnormality or disease has been identified.