Small Therapeutic Ultrasound Device Helps Relieve Arthritis

Imagine a therapeutic ultrasound device that's so small it fits in the palm of your hand. According to Chronical Online, George K. Lewis -- a third year Ph.D. student in biomedical engineering at Cornell and a National Science Foundation fellow -- has developed a prototype for that device and it's more powerful and less expensive than existing ultrasound models.

Ultrasound is mostly known as an imaging technique used to diagnose medical conditions. Sound waves that are inaudible to humans help generate images through soft tissue. But higher energy ultrasound can be used to break up kidney stones, help treat cancer, and relieve arthritis pain among other things. Traditional ultrasound devices apply 500 volt signals across a transducer to convert the voltage into sound waves. During that conversion, about 50% of the energy is lost. Lewis' smaller ultrasound devices, which transfer 95% of the energy to the transducer, are now being tested at Weill Cornell Medical College. The discovery may help expand the use of ultrasound in the future, making it a convenient and accessible treatment option.

Related Resources:

• What Is Ultrasound?
• How Ultrasound Works
• Full Size Ultrasound Machine
• More About Ultrasound

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_{Photos by Robert Barker/Cornell University Photography}