Lung Damage Assessment

By William D. O'Brien, Jr. and James F. Zachary.

It has been long thought that diagnostic ultrasound equipment could not produce biological damage. However, this assumption is now not the case. Diagnostic ultrasound-type pulses at diagnostic pressure levels have produced significant damage (lung hemorrhage) in mice, rats, rabbits, and monkeys. The majority of this experimental work was conducted with a commercial diagnostic ultrasound system. Thus, the questions of paramount clinical significance are: 1) Does diagnostic ultrasound produce lung damage in patients and, if so, 2) under what exposure conditions does the damage become significant? The medical significance of the research is related directly to the assessment of a potentially serious human health risk that may now be occurring in infants, children and adults from the use of current diagnostic ultrasound equipment. The research has been designed to address directly these issues by an interdisciplinary group of investigators who have considerable experience with ultrasound-induced lung damage, lung morphology and lung function research studies, in addition to ultrasound biophysics and engineering.

Mouse, rabbit and pig tissue.

For more information on the lung damage assessment research:

W. D. O'Brien, Jr. and J. F. Zachary. Mouse Lung Damage from Exposure to 30 kHz Ultrasound. Ultrasound in Medicine and Biology, 20, 287-297, 1994.

W. D. O'Brien, Jr. and J. F. Zachary. Comparison of Mouse and Rabbit Lung Damage Exposure to 30 kHz Ultrasound. Ultrasound in Medicine and Biology, 20, 299-307, 1994.

W. D. O'Brien, Jr. A Bioeffect Produced at Diagnostics Levels. Proceeding of the Society of Diagnostic Medical Sonographers Conference, pp 305-315, 1994.

J. F. Zachary and W. D. O'Brien, Jr. Lung Lesions Induced by Continuous and Pulsed Wave (Diagnostic) Ultrasound in Mice, Rabbits, and Pigs, Veterinary Pathology, 32, 43-54, 1995.
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W. D. O'Brien, Jr. and J. F. Zachary. Rabbit and Pig Lung Damage Comparison from Exposure to Continuous Wave 30-kHz Ultrasound. Ultrasound in Medicine and Biology, 22, 345-353, 1996.
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W. D. O'Brien, Jr. and J. F. Zachary. Lung Damage Assessment from Exposure to Pulsed-Wave Ultrasound in Rabbit, Mouse, and Pig. IEEE Transactions on Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics, and Frequency Control , 44, 473-485, 1997.
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W. D. O'Brien, Jr., L. A. Frizzell, R. M. Weigel, and J. F. Zachary. Ultrasound-induced Lung Hemorrhage is not Caused by Inertial Cavitation Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 108, 1290-1297, 2000.
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W. D. O'Brien Jr., L. A. Frizzell, D. J. Schaeffer and J. F. Zachary. Role of Pulse Repetition Frequency and Exposure Duration on the Superthreshold Behavior of Ultrasound-induced Lung Hemorrhage in Adult Mice and Rats. Proceedings of the 2000 IEEE Ultrasonics Symposium, pp. 1291-1294, 2000.

J. F. Zachary, L. A. Frizzell and and W. D. O'Brien Jr. Lesion Resolution Following Exposure of Rat Lung to Pulsed Ultrasound. Proceedings of the 2000 IEEE Ultrasonics Symposium, pp. 1295-1298, 2000.

C. K. Holland, W. D. O'Brien, Jr., A. F. Tarantal, L. A. Crum and P. L. Ferrer, Bioeffects in Tissues with Gas Bodies. In: Nonthermal Mechanical Bioeffects, Edited by B. Fowlkes and C. K. HOlland, pp. 97-108, American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine, Laural, Maryland. Journal of Ultrasound in Medicine, 19, 67-168, 2000.

W. D. O'Brien Jr., L. A. Frizzell, D. J. Schaeffer and J. F. Zachary. Role of Pulse Repetition Frequency and Exposure Duration on the Superthreshold Behavior of Ultrasound-induced Lung Hemorrhage in Adult Mice and Rats. Proceedings of the 2000 IEEE Ultrasonics Symposium, pp. 1291-1294, 2000.
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J. F. Zachary, L. A. Frizzell and W. D. O'Brien Jr. Lesion Resolution Following Exposure of Rat Lung to Pulsed Ultrasound. Proceedings of the 2000 IEEE Ultrasonics Symposium, pp. 1295-1298, 2000.
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L. A. Frizzell, J. M. Kramer, J. F. Zachary and W. D. O'Brien, Jr. Response to "Comments on 'Ultrasound-induced Lung Hemorrhage is not Caused by Inertial Cavitation" [J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 110, 1737 (2001)]." Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 110, 1738-1739, 2001. (This Letter to the Editor in response to: R. E. Apfel. Response to "Comments on Ultrasound-induced Lung Hemorrhage is not Caused by Inertial Cavitation" [J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 108, 1290-1297 (2000)]." Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 110, 1737, 2001).
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L. A. Frizzell, J. M. Kramer, J. F. Zachary and W. D. O'Brien, Jr. Comment on Apfel's Second Comment. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 110, 1742, 2001. (This Letter to the Editor in response to: R. E. Apfel. Reply to Frizzell et al.'s Comment to our Comment Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 110, 1740-1741, 2001).
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W. D. O'Brien, Jr., D. G. Simpson, L. A. Frizzell and J. F. Zachary. Superthreshold Behavior and Threshold Estimation of Ultrasound-induced Lung Hemorrhage in Adult Rats: Role of Beamwidth. IEEE Transactions on Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics, and Frequency Control, 48, 1695-1705, 2001.
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J. M. Kramer, T. G. Waldrop, L. A. Frizzell, J. F. Zachary and W. D. O'Brien, Jr. Cardiopulmonary Function in Rats with Lung Hemorrhage Induced by Pulsed Ultrasound Exposure. Journal of Ultrasound in Medicine, 20, 1197-1206, 2001.
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J. F. Zachary, S. A. Hartleben, L. A. Frizzell and W. D. O'Brien Jr. Contrast Agent-induced Cardiac Arrhythmias in Rats. Proceedings of the 2001 IEEE Ultrasonics Symposium, pp. XXX-XXX, 2001.

W. D. O'Brien Jr., D. G. Simpson, L. A. Frizzell and J. F. Zachary. Age-dependent Threshold and Superthreshold Behavior of Ultrasound-induced Lung Hemorrhage in Pigs. Proceedings of the 2001 IEEE Ultrasonics Symposium, pp. XXX-XXX, 2001.

J. F. Zachary, J. M. Sempsrott, L. A. Frizzell, D. G. Simpson and W. D. O'Brien, Jr. Superthreshold Behavior and Threshold Estimation of Ultrasound-induced Lung Hemorrhage in Adult Mice and Rats. IEEE Transactions on Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics, and Frequency Control, 48, 581-592, 2001.
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G. A. Teotico, R. J. Miller, L. A. Frizzell, J. F. Zachary and W. D. O'Brien, Jr. Attenuation Coefficient Estimates of Mouse and Rat Chest Wall. IEEE Transactions on Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics, and Frequency Control, 48, 593-601, 2001.
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W. D. O'Brien, Jr., L. A. Frizzell, D. J. Schaeffer and J. F. Zachary. Superthreshold Behavior of Ultrasound-induced Lung Hemorrhage in Adult Mice and Rats: Role of Pulse Repetition Frequency and Exposure Duration. Ultrasound in Medicine and Biology, 27, 267-277, 2001.
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J. F. Zachary, L. A. Frizzell, K. S. Norell, J. P. Blue, Jr., R. J. Miller and W. D. O'Brien, Jr. Temporal and Spatial Evaluation of Lesion Reparative Responses Following Superthreshold Exposure of Rat Lung to Pulsed Ultrasound. Ultrasound in Medicine and Biology, 27, 829-839, 2001.
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