Potential Adverse Ultrasound-related Biological Effects

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Abstract

Ultrasound energy exerts important cellular, genetic, thermal, and mechanical effects. Concern about the safety of ultrasound prompted several agencies to devise regulatory limits on the machine output intensities. The visual display of thermal and mechanical indices during ultrasound imaging provides an aid to limit the output of the machine. Despite many animal studies, no human investigations conducted to date have documented major physiologic consequences of ultrasound exposed during imaging. To date, ultrasound imaging appears to be safe for use in regional anesthesia and pain medicine interventions, and adherence to limiting the output of ultrasound machines as outlined by the Food and Drug Administration may avoid complications in the future. This article reviews ultrasound-related biologic effects, the role of the regulatory agencies in ensuring safety with the use of ultrasound, and the limitations and implications of ultrasound use in humans.

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Ultrasound-biophysics mechanisms.

William O’Brien (2015)

Ultrasonic biophysics is the study of mechanisms responsible for how ultrasound and biological materials interact. Ultrasound-induced bioeffect or risk studies focus on issues related to the effects of ultrasound on biological materials. On the other hand, when biological materials affect the ultrasonic wave, this can be viewed as the basis for diagnostic ultrasound. Thus, an understanding of the interaction of ultrasound with tissue provides the scientific basis for image production and risk assessment. Relative to the bioeffect or risk studies, that is, the biophysical mechanisms by which ultrasound affects biological materials, ultrasound-induced bioeffects are generally separated into thermal and non-thermal mechanisms. Ultrasonic dosimetry is concerned with the quantitative determination of ultrasonic energy interaction with biological materials. Whenever ultrasonic energy is propagated into an attenuating material such as tissue, the amplitude of the wave decreases with distance. This attenuation is due to either absorption or scattering. Absorption is a mechanism that represents that portion of ultrasonic wave that is converted into heat, and scattering can be thought of as that portion of the wave, which changes direction. Because the medium can absorb energy to produce heat, a temperature rise may occur as long as the rate of heat production is greater than the rate of heat removal. Current interest with thermally mediated ultrasound-induced bioeffects has focused on the thermal isoeffect concept. The non-thermal mechanism that has received the most attention is acoustically generated cavitation wherein ultrasonic energy by cavitation bubbles is concentrated. Acoustic cavitation, in a broad sense, refers to ultrasonically induced bubble activity occurring in a biological material that contains pre-existing gaseous inclusions. Cavitation-related mechanisms include radiation force, microstreaming, shock waves, free radicals, microjets and strain. It is more challenging to deduce the causes of mechanical effects in tissues that do not contain gas bodies. These ultrasonic biophysics mechanisms will be discussed in the context of diagnostic ultrasound exposure risk concerns.

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Mechanical bioeffects of ultrasound.

Diane Dalecki (2003)

Ultrasound is used widely in medicine as both a diagnostic and therapeutic tool. Through both thermal and nonthermal mechanisms, ultrasound can produce a variety of biological effects in tissues in vitro and in vivo. This chapter provides an overview of the fundamentals of key nonthermal mechanisms for the interaction of ultrasound with biological tissues. Several categories of mechanical bioeffects of ultrasound are then reviewed to provide insight on the range of ultrasound bioeffects in vivo, the relevance of these effects to diagnostic imaging, and the potential application of mechanical bioeffects to the design of new therapeutic applications of ultrasound in medicine.

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Production of reversible changes in the central nervous system by ultrasound.

David Fry, Edwin W. Ades (1958)

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Author and article information

Journal

Title: Anesthesiology

Abbreviated Title: Anesthesiology

Publisher: Ovid Technologies (Wolters Kluwer Health)

ISSN (Print): 0003-3022

Publication date Created: 2011

Publication date (Print): November 2011

Volume: 115

Issue: 5

Pages: 1109-1124

Article

DOI: 10.1097/ALN.0b013e31822fd1f1

PubMed ID: 21866043

SO-VID: 74844e59-cc66-4ece-bf13-b1e2c3b4539b

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