Ultrasound, or high-frequency sound, has proven useful in a wide range of applications, including medicine. Therapeutic ultrasound involves treating a variety of physical ailments with sound waves between 09 and 3 Megahertz. Ultrasound technology can stimulate body tissues, reduce bleeding, break up kidney stones or blot clots, and accurately deliver drugs to specific points in the body. Because ultrasound is a non-invasive technology, it may allow patients with certain conditions to avoid more drastic and painful procedures such as surgery.
Tissue Repair and Healing
Physical therapists use ultrasound to ease painful joints and relax muscles by moving a wand-like emitter over the afflicted area. Different frequency levels reach different depths of tissue, enabling the therapist to work with specific internal structures and control the amount of heat. Ultrasonic physiotherapy can speed healing, reduce scarring and inflammation, and even encourage bones to heal.
A combination of ultrasound techniques can find and stop internal bleeding. Traditional ultrasound provides internal images of the source of the blood loss, while High-Intensity Focused Ultrasound (HIFU) creates intense heat that seals the bleeding tissues. This newer procedure requires no incision and can even stop bleeding within major organs. In the words of researcher Dr. Shahram Vaezy, "Imagine if we could stop the internal bleeding of a car accident patient at the scene without opening the patient."
Breaking Down Stones and Clots
Kidney stones can form in the kidneys and cause intense pain or even internal damage. While surgery remains the only treatment option for some patients, depending on the size and nature of the stones, a newer treatment called extracorporeal shockwave lithotripsy allows others to avoid an operation. Lithotripsy uses ultrasound to create shock waves that break the stone into tiny pieces that can then pass through the body on their own.
Ultrasonic techniques can also disintegrate dangerous blood clots. Sufferers from thrombosis experience clots in deep veins that can travel to the heart and cause death if left unchecked. In addition to traditional treatment with blood thinners, a new technique known as Ultrasound Assisted Thrombolysis directs high-frequency sound waves through a wire inserted near the clot. The ultrasound breaks up the clot, allowing medications to dissolve the remaining pieces.
Drug Delivery
Ultrasound can help deliver drugs or colored dyes for imaging to precise, focused areas of the human body. Using a new technique developed at the University of California at Berkeley, the sound waves direct the flow of the drug or dye to the precise target point of the ultrasonic beam. This method of delivery allows more of the drug to reach its destination.
Tags: sound waves, deliver drugs, high-frequency sound, internal bleeding, stop internal