DIRECT EVIDENCE OF CAVITATION IN-VIVO FROM DIAGNOSTIC ULTRASOUND

Recent increases in the pressure output of diagnostic ultrasound scann ers have led to an interest in establishing thresholds for bioeffects in many organs including the lungs of mammals, Damage may be mediated by inertial cavitation, yet there have been no such direct observation s in vivo, To explore the hypothesis of cavitation-based bioeffects fr om diagnostic ultrasound, research has been performed on the threshold s of damage in rat lungs exposed to 4.0-MHz pulsed Doppler and color D oppler ultrasound, A 30-MHz active cavitation detection scheme complem enting these studies provides the first direct evidence of cavitation in vivo from diagnostic ultrasound pulses.