The ultrasound can be also be used to help perform a biopsy of the prostate.
The earlier you catch your prostate cancer, the better your chance of successful treatment.
If your prostate is enlarged without any other characteristics of cancer, you may just have benign prostate hyperplasia.
Theo Heimann / Getty Images
As you age, your prostate increases in size.
Ultrasound is also used very frequently during aprostate biopsyto guide the healthcare provider to biopsy exactly where needed.
This probe emits high-frequency sound waves and detects their return.
These sound waves can then be detected and measured as they reflect off of various structures inside the body.
When sound waves echo off of an object, they change slightly.
Different types of structures reflect or echo sound waves differently.
These differences can be detected and an image produced that shows where one structure stops and another starts.
This allows for a detailed view of the area near the ultrasound probe.
As the ultrasound is being performed, the image that is produced is in real-time.
Leslie SW, Soon-Sutton TL, Sajjad H.Prostate Cancer.
[Updated 2019 Oct 8].
In: StatPearls [Internet].
Treasure Island (FL): StatPearls Publishing; 2019 Jan-.
2010;10(1):4048.
Published 2010 Mar 3. doi:10.1102/1470-7330.2010.0004
