From GE Healthcare.;
'Vivid 7 Dimension, a premier cardiovascular ultrasound system from GE Healthcare, expands on the strength of a powerful imaging platform to offer new, innovative technology of dimensional proportions.'

From GE Healthcare.;
'The incredible Vivid i system establishes a completely new level of cardiovascular performance that gives clinicians the freedom to get diagnostic results outside of the echo lab.'

A liver sonography is a diagnostic tool to image the liver and adjoining upper abdominal organs such as the gallbladder, spleen, and pancreas. Deeper structures such as liver and pancreas are imaged at a lower frequency 1-6 MHz with lower axial and lateral resolution but greater penetration. The diagnostic capabilities in this area can be limited by gas in the bowel scattering the sound waves.
The application of microbubbles may be useful for detection of liver lesions and for lesion characterization. Some microbubbles have a liver-specific post vascular phase where they appear to be taken up by the reticuloendothelial system (RES). Dynamic contrast enhanced scans in a similar way as with CT or MRI can be used to studying the arterial, venous and tissue phase.
After a bolus injection, early vascular enhancement is seen at around 30sec in arterialized lesions (e.g., hepatocellular carcinomas (HCC), focal nodular hyperplasia (FNH)). Later enhancement is typical of hemangiomas with gradually filling towards the center. In the late phase at around 90sec, HCCs appear as defects against the liver background. Most metastases are relatively hypovascular and so do not show much enhancement and are seen as signal voids in the different phases.
Either with an intermittent imaging technique or by continuous scanning in a nondestructive, low power mode, characteristic time patterns can be used to differentiate lesions.

See also Medical Imaging, B-Mode, High Intensity Focused Ultrasound, Ultrasound Safety and Contrast Medium.

A longitudinal wave is a waveform in which the particle motion is parallel to the direction of the wave travel. Sound propagates as longitudinal waves. A series of longitudinal waves make up the ultrasound beam.
A longitudinal wave is produced when a piezoelectric ceramic in an ultrasound transducer, transmits it's back and forth oscillation into a continuous, elastic medium. The particles of the medium are made to oscillate in the direction of the wave propagation, but are otherwise stationary.

A mode is an operational state that a system has been switched to. A normal mode occurs when all parts of a system oscillate with the same frequency.
For example, a standing wave is a continuous form of normal mode. In a standing wave, all the parts are oscillating in the same frequency and phase but each has a different amplitude.