To demonstrate how an ultrasound works, imagine this tennis ball as
an internal organ in the body. Like many organs, the tennis ball is
solid on the outside and hollow on the inside. Solid structures,
such as bones and muscles, reflect sound waves from the ultrasound
transducer and show up as white in an ultrasound image. Soft or
hollow areas, like chambers of the heart, do not reflect sound
waves and appear as black. The white ring is the outer edge of the
tennis ball being reflected back as an image while the center
hollow area remains as black.
Review Date: 11/21/2010
Reviewed By: David C. Dugdale, III, MD, Professor of Medicine, Division of
General Medicine, Department of Medicine, University of Washington
School of Medicine. Also reviewed by David Zieve, MD, MHA, Medical
Director, A.D.A.M., Inc.
A.D.A.M., Inc. is accredited by URAC, also known as the American Accreditation HealthCare Commission (www.urac.org)
