David Levine
Many thanks for your reply. Although I had already accessed some of
the references, there were some there that I had not found.
The main difference in the European literature and much of the
clinical practice is that a heating effect is not actually sought
from US. The principle effect aimed at with pulsed US appears to be
mechanical or biological with minimal thermal effect.
The literature available suggests that this effect is from the
acoustic streaming as a result of stable cavitation. Conversley it is
thought that transient cavitation is the type that can be dangerous
and pulsed US as opposed to continuous is thought to help minimise
this.
A few references I have found so far include
Haar GR (1987) Basic physics of therapeutic ultrasound.
Physiotherapy, 73,110-113
Dyson M (1987). Mechanisms involved in therapeutic ultrasound.
Physiotherapy 73 116-120
Maxwell L (1992). Therapeutic ultrasound: its effect on the cellular
and molecular mechanisms of inflammation and repair. Physiotherapy
78,421-426
There are also a number of review papers which I will add to the list
when I next get a few minutes!
Nicola Phillips
Nicola Phillips MSc, MCSP
Lecturer
University of Wales College of Medicine
Department of Physiotherapy Education
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