An interactive primer for the Anatomy and Spatiality of a Canine Abdominal Point of Care Ultrasound

Subject areas

This course counts toward the state boards and subject areas below.

Disclosure statements

This course is a collaborative effort between Kevin Hannon, PhD, and Aimee Brooks, DVM, MS, DACVECC, and brought to you by Butterfly IQ+ Vet Education and Active Lesson Ed Tech.

The first exercise exposes users to the anatomy and spatiality of an ultrasound probe and scan. The lesson progresses from schematics and definitions of ultrasound basics, including beam anatomy. Then, it continues with 3D segmentations and practice scans.  

The second lesson teaches users how to visualize the anatomy seen in a canine point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) using normal scans. While not a complete diagnostic abdominal ultrasound that evaluates the entire abdomen, this primer prepares the user to identify fluid (effusion) within the peritoneal, pleural, pericardial, and retroperitoneal spaces.

Learning objectives:

A user will be able to describe the depth and width of an ultrasound beam.

The user will be able to describe the importance of the orientation marker and how the probe was held to generate the image on the screen.

A user will be able to describe the five common windows of POCUS and their relationship to important palpable landmarks.

A user will be able to describe and identify the underlying anatomy of these five windows and how that anatomy appears in a POCUS image.

A user will be able to describe why these POCUS scans appear normal.