Ultrasound has been a major medical advance, but because it was misused by some doctors for determining the sex of the fetus, the use of ultrasound scanning has been severely restricted in India by the onerous provisions of the draconian PCPNDT Act. The tragedy is that this is harming other medical specialties, and the patients these specialists treat. This is because ultrasound is used for a wide variety of clinical problems, including cardiology ( for doing echocardiograms); gastroenterology ( for example, for diagnosing gall stones); urology ( for example, to manage kidney stones); and in emergencies ( for example, to assess blood flow to the limbs).
Ultrasound scanners are inexpensive and can be used for scanning any part of the body. They are portable and are best used by the clinician at the bedside, so he can quickly access the information he needs. This is now done routinely all…
