Therapeutic ultrasound is a type of ultrasonic procedure that is a noninvasive treatment in which sound waves are used to penetrate soft tissues which increases blood flow. This treatment is used to relieve pain, improve circulation, and encourage tissue healing. Therapeutic ultrasound is mainly used to treat various musculoskeletal pathologies, soft tissue shoulder pathology, and myofascial pain. My research is to see how beneficial therapeutic ultrasound is and what effects it has on the body. I want to see if therapeutic ultrasound does more good than harm since it is noninvasive and uses sound waves instead of radiation. Issues related to therapeutic ultrasound are superficial burns to the skin when used for long periods of time. When using high intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU), it is important for tissue changes to be monitored in order to confirm the treatment has been attained. There are two methods used for treatment monitoring and image guidance which is magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and ultrasound. MRI imaging can measure temperature changes during therapy within the treatment zone of the therapeutic ultrasound procedures. Special clinical systems have ultrasound therapy subsystems integrated into MRI imagers for treatments of uterine fibroids, breast cancer, and prostate cancer management. It was interesting to find out how MRI and ultrasound helped each other in treatment options. The current research on therapeutic ultrasound is to determine the effectiveness of this treatment option and how safe this treatment method is compared to other modalities.
