Biomed Eng Lett.  2017 May;7(2):143-151. 10.1007/s13534-017-0017-4.

Geometrical characterization of the cavitation bubble clouds produced by a clinical shock wave device

Affiliations
  • 1Department of Medicine, School of Medicine, Jeju National University, 102 Jejudaehakno, Jeju-Si, Jeju Special Self-Governing Province 63294, Republic of Korea. mjchoi@jejunu.ac.kr
  • 2Interdisciplinary Postgraduate Program in Biomedical Engineering, Jeju National University, 102 Jejudaehakno, Jeju-Si, Jeju Special Self-Governing Province 63294, Republic of Korea.
  • 3Department of Urology, Jeju National University Hospital, 15, Aran 13-gil, Jeju-Si, Jeju Special Self-Governing Province 63241, Republic of Korea.

Abstract

This study was to optically visualize the cavitation bubbles produced by a clinical shock wave and to look into their geometric features of the resulting cavitation bubbles in relation to the driving shock wave field. A clinical shock wave therapeutic system was taken for shock wave production. The shock wave induced cavitation bubbles were captured by a professional camera under the illumination of a micro-pulse LED light. The light exposure was set to last for the whole life time of bubbles from formation to subsequent collapses. It was shown that the cavitation bubbles appeared mostly in the vicinity of the focus. The bubbles became more and larger as approaching to the focus. The cavitation bubbles formed jet streams which became enlarged (stronger) as the shock wave device output setting increased. The bubble cloud boundary was reasonably fitted to an elongated ellipsoid characteristically similar to the acoustic focal area. The bubble clouds were enlarged as the output setting increased. The geometric features of the cavitation bubbles characteristically similar to those of the focusing acoustic field have potential to provide the therapeutic focal information without time consuming hydrophone measurements of the shock wave field causing damages of the expensive sensor. The present study is limited to the static afterimages of the cavitation bubbles and investigation including the bubble dynamics is suggested to deliver the more realistic therapeutic area of the shock wave therapy.

Keyword

Extracorporeal shock wave therapy; Shock wave field; Cavitation bubble cloud; Visualization; Therapeutic focal region

MeSH Terms

Acoustics
Afterimage
Lighting
Rivers
Shock*
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