Documente Academic
Documente Profesional
Documente Cultură
Sound speed
Tissue stiffness
Tissue density
part of the patient is exposed to the influence of the beam of mechanical waves.
As these waves travel through the patients body they interact with the tissue
giving rise to two type of biological effects: thermal and non-thermal effects
1. Thermal effects:
a. As the mechanical waves travel through the tissue, some of the
ultrasound energy is absorbed by the tissue and is converted to heat
causing a local rise of the temperature. This increase of temperature
depends on the region of the body that is scanned and the parameters
used to perform the ultrasound. If we perform an ultrasound with the
transducer in a fixed position (e.g. pulsed Doppler study) the increase
of temperature will be fastest at the focus of the field of view. However,
as time passes the regions where the increase was highest will start to
lose some of the absorbed energy. This thermal energy will be
dissipated to adjacent cooler regions by thermal conduction. Among all
tissues, bones have shown a strong ultrasound waves absorption at all
frequencies. This leads to a focal rapid increase of the temperature to
its final value since the US energy is almost completely absorbed.
b. A second consequence related with thermal effect is that the
transducer itself begins to heat up as it generates the mechanical
waves. This rise of temperature will be perceived at the contact surface
between the transducer and the patients skin.
Does the rise of temperature matters?
Studies have shown that after been exposed to Doppler
examination it appeared to be unlikely that a temperature rise of more
than 1.5C would occur in soft tissue. While for bone tissue the evidence
showed a temperature rise between 1.5 and 4C. However, it is important
to consider that the human body is quite capable to recover from this local
increase of temperature (3).
Besides from the fact that temperature rise is localized and
normally well-tolerated by patients safety, for more than 20 years all
ultrasound manufacturers have been following the FDA regulation that
limits the energy output of the equipment. The regulation also introduced
the output display standard which are biophysical indicators (thermal
index (TI) and mechanical index (MI)) for real-time display of safety
information during scanning.
2. Non-thermal effects
a. Mechanical waves might create cavitation effect in micro bubbles
within the tissue. Theoretically, bubbles with a diameter of 2m can
resonate with typical diagnostic frequencies giving rise to a rapid
collapse of the bubble, high localized increase of pressure and
temperature. However, this theoretical local destructive outcome have
never been evidenced in the clinical settings.
(1) Hoskins, P., Kevin, M., Abigail, T., 2010. Diagnostic Ultrasound: Physics and
Equipment, 2 ed.