Neonatal and pediatric ultrasonography- part I

Abstract

Small animal patients are commonly presented to the veterinarian because of 8 signs referable to the abdominal cavity due to congenital anomalies, dietary indiscretion, 9 parasitic infestation and infectious or inflammatory disease. Abdominal ultrasound 10 provides valuable clinical information about the peritoneal cavity, great vessels, 11 abdominal viscera and lymph nodes obtained in a non invasive fashion, with no 12 confirmed adverse biologic effects, and usually not necessitating sedation or 13 anesthesia. This paper reviews the techniques for performing the pediatric abdominal 14 ultrasound scan. 15 Abdominal ultrasound provides useful data in a short period of time. The normal 16 paucity of intra-abdominal fat in pediatric patients results in less informative abdominal 17 radiography, but actually improves ultrasonographic imaging. (Abdominal fat attenuates the ultrasound beam.)1 18 Image quality is improved with small patient size as a higher 19 frequency scanhead can be employed. Acquisition of special equipment for pediatric 20 ultrasonography is usually not necessary as scanheads selected for small animal 21 (especially feline) clinical use are appropriate for most pediatric cases. 22 Small animal patients are best evaluated using an ultrasound machine equipped 23 with a curvilinear variable frequency scanhead (6.0-8.0 MHz). Many portable machines 4 now have available a high frequency linear scanhead (8.0 -10.0 MHz) which will 25 improve quality and also allow evaluation of smaller regional anatomy (thyroid, parathyroid, cryptorchid testes).2