US 5,547,459 A · Ultrasonic bone-therapy apparatus and method

Abstract

A method of ultrasonic bone-therapy subjects a bone to an ultrasonic excitation pulse signal of finite duration, supplied to a transducer next to the bone, and involving a sinusoidal signal in the ultrasonic region to approximately 2 MHz peculiarly modulated by a sinusoidal signal with frequency between about 0 Hz and about 25 kHz; the excitation signal is repeated in the range of 1 to 5000 Hz. The exposure time for therapy is chosen to be in the range of 5 minutes to 1 hour, for 1 to 3 times a day, for a period of days as necessary for healing or for promoting bone growth and ingrowth. An apparatus for implementing the above method for ultrasonic bone therapy is disclosed comprising a transducer having a transmitting and a receiving element, a special waveform signal generator, and a computer for performing the necessary operations defining a preferred treatment regime.

Claims43

Dependent claims

A method of non-invasively therapeutically treating a bone tissue in vivo using an ultrasonic signal, comprising the steps of:

(A) producing a periodic therapeutic sine-wave modulated ultrasonic sine-wave signal described by ##EQU15## ##EQU16## where N is the number of pulse repetitions within each cycle and 1<N<10,000, f.sub.m is the modulating frequency which is selected within the range of 0<f.sub.m <25 kHz;
f.sub.o is the carrier frequency which is selected within the range of 25 kHz<f.sub.o <2 MHz;
T is the cycle duration which is 0.2 ms<T<1.0 s;
T.sub.s is the pulse width which is 0.1 ms<T.sub.s <1.0 s;
T.sub.s ' is the duration of a pulse and a pause for one repetition (N=1) which is 0.1 ms<T.sub.s '<1.0 s;
a is the modulation index which is 0<a<1000;
K is a constant defining intensity (I.sub.SATA) of said ultrasonic signal;
and
(B) exposing said bone tissue to said therapeutic ultrasonic signal transmitted through soft tissue overlying said bone tissue;
to thereby induce bone growth and bone healing.

7 more elements

A method of non-invasively therapeutically treating a bone tissue in vivo using an ultrasonic signal, comprising the steps of:

(A) generating a periodic therapeutic frequency modulated sine wave amplitude modulated frequency modulated sine wave ultrasonic signal;
(B) selecting a power intensity of said therapeutic signal by virtue of
(Ba) generating an interrogating ultrasonic pulse,
(Bb) transmitting said interrogating ultrasonic pulse to said bone tissue through said soft tissue overlying said bone tissue,
(Bc) receiving a portion of said interrogating pulse reflected from said bone tissue,
(Bd) determining the thickness of said soft tissue using said reflected portion, and
(Be) adjusting the amplitude of said therapeutic ultrasonic signal to ensure that a spatial-average time-average power intensity thereof reaching said bone tissue corresponds to a predetermined value;
and (
C) exposing said bone tissue to said therapeutic ultrasonic signal transmitted through soft tissue overlying said bone tissue;
to thereby induce bone growth and healing.

7 more elements

A method of non-invasively therapeutically treating a bone tissue in vivo using an ultrasonic signal, comprising the steps of:

(A) producing a periodic therapeutic ultrasonic signal described by ##EQU21## repeating every T seconds (1/T Hz), with p.sub.s (t) given by the equation:
p.sub.s (t)=K{1+a sin[2.pi.(f.sub.m +(f.sub.m *-f.sub.m)t/T.sub.s)t]sin [2.pi.(f.sub.o +f.sub.o *-f.sub.o)t/T.sub.s)t}, 0.ltoreq.t.ltoreq.T.sub.s,
where
f.sub.m is a modulating frequency selected within the range of 0<f.sub.m .ltoreq.25 kHz and having a sweeping range between a selected value f.sub.m and an upper limit value f.sub.m * of about 25 kHz;
f.sub.o is a carrier frequency selected within the range of 25 kHz<f.sub.o .ltoreq.2 MHz and having a sweeping range between a selected value f.sub.o and an upper limit value f.sub.o * of about 2 MHz;
T is the cycle duration which is 0.2 ms.ltoreq.T.ltoreq.1.0 s;
T.sub.s is the pulse width which is 0.1 ms.ltoreq.T.sub.s .ltoreq.1.0 s;
T.sub.s ' is the duration of a pulse and a pause for one repetition (N=1) which is 0.1 ms<T.sub.s '.ltoreq.1.0 s;
a number N of pulse repetitions within a cycle being up to 10,000;
a is the modulation index which is 0.ltoreq.a.ltoreq.1000;
K is a constant defining intensity (I.sub.SATA) of said ultrasonic signal which is adjusted so that 20 mW/cm.sup.2 .ltoreq.I.sub.SATA .ltoreq.100 mW/cm.sup.2 ;
and
(B) exposing said bone tissue to said therapeutic ultrasonic signal transmitted through a soft tissue overlying said bone tissue;
to thereby induce bone growth and healing.

11 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Ultrasonic bone-therapy apparatus and method

Life of this patent

Ultrasonic bone-therapy apparatus and method

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims43