Ultrasound

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Ultrasound (or sonography) uses reflected sound waves to create real-time images of soft tissues, including muscles, blood vessels and organs. Because sound waves are used, there is no radiation exposure during this procedure.

Although most commonly used to examine the fetus during pregnancy, it is also an effective tool for monitoring blood flow using Doppler ultrasound technology. Ultrasound can be used to discover abnormalities in organs, and detect narrowed arteries, clotted veins, or growths such as tumors and cysts.

Bayfront Health Brooksville offers a variety of ultrasound procedures, including:

• Obstetric and breast ultrasound exams
• Ultrasound-guided biopsies of the breast, kidney, liver and thyroid
• Paracentesis and thoracentesis

Endoscopic Ultrasound

Bayfront Health Brooksville's full-service gastrointestinal program incorporates a relatively new procedure, the Endoscopic Ultrasound (EUS). EUS combines the techniques of endoscopy and ultrasound examination to obtain images and information about various parts of the digestive tract through a less-invasive procedure than surgery. The procedure enables physicians to detect and determine treatment for cancerous and non-cancerous tumors, masses and lesions in body tissues at earlier stages, as well as determine how aggressively these masses should be treated.

EUS incorporates endoscopes, thin flexible telescopes that allow trained specialists to examine most areas of the abdomen. Located at the end of the scope, a small television camera enables physicians to see the lining of the gut on a television monitor. A small ultrasound transducer is also mounted on the tip of the scope; making is possible to obtain high quality ultrasound images inside the upper and lower digestive tract. These endoscopes deliver an enhanced image and ultrasound, allowing both diagnostic and therapeutic applications to take place during a single procedure. A color dopple screen can also show images of blood flow through body tissue, allowing physicians to differentiate vascular anatomy from tumors.

The following situations benefit from EUS:

• Staging of cancers of the esophagus, stomach, pancreas and rectum - EUS is highly accurate in evaluating involvement in tumor spread of the different gut-wall layers and surrounding lymph nodes.
• Staging of lung cancer - EUS is valuable in detecting cancer spreads to lymph nodes in the center of the chest (mediastinum) which are not always visible on CT scans.
• Submucosal lesions - Ultrasound scanning over "submucosal nodules," nodules or lumps bulging from the wall of the esophagus or stomach, is helpful in determining their nature and treatment.
• Chronic pancreatitis - EUS aids in providing detailed information about the pancreas gland and pancreatic duct. Chronic inflammation and damage to the pancreas are often difficult to diagnose.
• Disorders of the bile duct
• Fecal incontinence

A specially trained medical team assists the doctors in procedures that last from 45 minutes to two hours and are much less invasive than surgery.