Everything You Need to Know about Carotid Ultrasound

Carotid ultrasound is the diagnostic imaging testing that displays the structural details of the carotid artery. This helps the doctors to take a look into the blood flow problems, atherosclerotic plaque, or any blood clots and thereby recommend the right therapy to recover these.

This technique is carried out with the help of duplex ultrasonography. This includes a Doppler ultrasound that is special test to show the movement of the blood cells within the carotid artery.

Carotid ultrasound generally uses the sound waves while revealing the pictures  of the carotid arteries in the neck. These carry the blood from the heart to human brain.

This process or test is recommended to the patients who have potential blockage or narrow carotid artery. This condition is often referred to as the stenosis. This enhances the chance of stroke.

The patients need not carry any particular item while going to the test centre. No preparation is required. Also, make sure to leave the ornaments at home since it may hinder the testing process. Also, it’s preferable that you wear loose fitting blouse or open necked shirt so that the sonographers can properly evaluate the condition.

Carotid ultrasound – a non invasive painless procedure

Carotid ultrasound is a non invasive painless procedure. Here images of the inside part of the body is captured with the help of high frequency sound waves. Here a small probe known as the transducer and a gel is used. As the sound wave is passed through the probe and gel into the body, the probe helps the wave to reflect. And readily the computer screen captures the images in real time. It shows the movement and condition of the internal organ of the body. It also shows blood flow through the vessels.

Doppler ultrasound is basically the study of the integral parts of the carotid ultrasound process. This is a special technique to understand the movement of the materials inside the body. It helps the doctors to get an insight into the blood flow through veins and arteries inside the body. Thereby they can understand if there’s any blockage or narrowing in the veins or which action needs to be taken to recover from these.

If the patient has a high blood pressure, this test is done. Several other factors that lead the doctors to suggest the patients to opt for carotid ultrasound are as follow: diabetes, increased blood cholesterol level, family history of heart disease or stroke and so on.