Continuous vs. Pulsed Waves - Video Lesson

Hey, everybody. Welcome back to our sonography series focusing on pulsed waves. In this lesson, we will discuss the differences between continuous wave ultrasound and pulsed wave ultrasound, their applications, advantages, and limitations. We will also cover important concepts like duty factor, spatial pulse length, SPL, and axial resolution, all of which contribute to the optimization of image quality in ultrasound imaging. Let's get started. Continuous wave ultrasound operates by transmitting sound waves continuously at a constant frequency. The transducer sends out uninterrupted sound waves that travel through tissues and return to the transducer as an echo. This allows for constant monitoring of high velocity flow in doppler studies, which will be discussed in-depth in a different lesson. However, continuous wave ultrasound has a significant limitation. It cannot localize the exact depth of the signal. This is called range ambiguity.