DMS110 lab 11-18-10

Today we practiced scanning the entire abdomen in one hour. I took images of GV, liver, GB, CBD, both kidneys, and spleen. I was not able to see the pancreas due to a large amount of gas in my patient's bowel. The focus in this lab was optimizing the images, by breathing techniques, adjusting gain, depth and focus. I also changed my pre-sets and used the auto optimize button. I liked the renal pre-set for the kidneys. Also finding different windows helped me see the left kidney and the spleen.

DMS 110 lab 11-4-2010 Spectral Doppler

Today we learned how to use spectral Doppler, combined with color Doppler. We did not change the angle of insonation, at least not on all the images. I obtained images of right kidney in long and trans with spectral arterial and venous waveforms. I found that in long I got better arterial waveform, and in trans I got better venous waveform.
We also imaged portal vein with spectral flow, and the aorta, at the celiac axis, and at the proximal and distal location. We practiced more finding the CBD, and we measured it at the pancreatic head. I liked this lab because I learned hands-on about the spectral Doppler, and I learned about how different the velocity of the blood is in different spots of the body. For example the velocity in the celiac axis was about 100cm/s, and in the portal vein was 20 cm/s. The part that I found challenging was finding the optimal angle, and position in order to obtain an accurate velocity. I am sure that this will come with more practice and knowledge of physics.