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| Safety
of Ultrasound |
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Safety issues
relating to the medical use of ultrasound are overseen by the Safety Group of
the BMUS Scientific and Education committee.
Click on the following links for... |
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| To view the
BMUS Guidelines on using volunteers/patients for live demonstrations and
training sessions and the consent form for the purposes of teaching and
demonstration please click on the link below. This will take you to the BMUS
Publications pages.... |
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Other links to
organisations which deal with safe use of medical ultrasound, and research into
interaction with tissue and potential bioeffects...
External web links open in a new browser
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"It
may seem surprising that it was only two years ago that BMUS Council decided to
form a BMUS Safety Group. Whilst the safe use of diagnostic ultrasond has been
long acknowledged as an essential concern of all users, BMUS has, in the past,
felt it appropriate to depend for safety advice on the excellent activities of
the European Commitee for Medical ULtrasound Safety (ECMUS), and on the World
Federation for Ultrasound in Medicine, and its safety committee.
The Development of safety indices, Thermal Index and Mechanical Index, and
their display to all users, has done much to bring forward considerations of
safe ultrasound exposure, and possible interaction mechanisms between
ultrasound and tissue. One of the first tasks of the BMUS Safety Group was to
draft advice for BMUS members on the use of MI and TI. Many members were asking
to know whether they should take action when the safety indices reached
particular values, and how to interpret them. these Guidelines, and the Safety
Statement accompanying them , have been prepared realising that members might
value advice concerning a wider range of matters of safety. the set of fifteen
guidelines cover much more than how to use the TI and MI (guideline 11), and
include a range of topics such as probe self-heating, operator training, and
non-diagnostic use. We felt that many users would wish to understand why
guidelines have been written as they have, and therefore we have included
detailed rationale where this seemed appropriate.
The documents have resulted from the hard work of the six members of the
Safety Group: Trish chudleigh, Adam shaw, Hylton Meire, Tony Whittingham, Jim
Neilson, and myself. I would particularly like to thank Tony Whittingham for
his patient hard work in drafting, redrafting and agian redrafting these
documents. Valuable changes were also suggested by members of the BMUS
Scientific and Education Comittee, and the documents have now been accepted by
Council as official BMUS positions on the safe use of ultrasound in medical
diagnosis. All BMUS members have recently received a copy of 'The Safe Use of
Ultrasound in Medical Diagnosis', abook which was rapidly called "the
Green Book". The drafting of this book and the Guidelines were occuring
over the same period, and it had been hoped to include one in the other -these
best laid plans failed. However, those who wish to learn more detail about the
scientific background to safety can find much supporting information in the
Green Book." - Francis Duck: Chairman , BMUS
Safety Group. Aug 2000.
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REFERENCE
WORKS
The following bibliography, in chronological order, contains several
books and other documents which are key references to the safe use of
ultrasound in medicine. Some of the older books are now out of print.
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- Willams, AR, 1983. Ultrasound: Biological Effects and
Potential Hazards, Medical Physics Series, Academic
- NCRP, 1983. Biological Effects of Ultrasound:
Mechanisms and Clinical Implications, NCRP Report No.74, National
Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements, 7910 Woodmont Ave, Bethesda,
MD 20814, USA.
- Nyborg WL and Ziskin MC (eds), 1985. Biological
effects of ultrasound, Clinics in Diagnostic Ultrasound 16, Churchill
Livingstone.
- Wells PNT, 1987, The Safety of Diagnostic
Ultrasound, British Journal of Radiology, Supplement No. 20. British
Institute of Radiology, 36 Portland Place, London, W1N 4AT.
- AIUM, 1988. Bioeffects Considerations for the Safety
of Diagnostic Ultrasound, Journal of Ultrasound in Medicine 7/9
Supplement. American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine, Bethesda, MD, USA..
- Preston RC (ed), 1991, Output Measurements for
Medical Ultrasound, Springer-Verlag
- Docker MF and Duck FA (eds), 1991. The Safe Use of
Diagnostic Ultrasound, British Medical Ultrasound Society/ British
Institute of Radiology, 36 Portland Place, London, W1N 4AT.
- NCRP, 1992. Exposure Criteria for Medical Diagnostic
Ultrasound: I. Criteria Based on Thermal Mechanisms, NCRP Report No.
113, National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements, 7910 Woodmont
Ave, Bethesda, MD 20814, USA.
- Barnett SB and Kossoff G (eds), 1992. WFUMB Symposium
on Safety and Standardisation in Medical Ultrasound, Ultrasound in
Medicine & Biology, 18/9.
- Ziskin MC and Lewin PA (eds), 1993. Ultrasonic
Exposimetry, CRC Press.
- Barnett SB and Kossoff G (eds), 1998. Safety of
Diagnostic Ultrasound, Progress in Obstetric and Gynecological
Sonography Series, Parthenon.
- Barnett SB (ed), 1998. WFUMB Symposium on Safety of
Ultrasound in Medicine. Conclusions and Recommendations on Thermal and
Mechanical Mechanisms for Biological Effects of Ultrasound, Ultrasound
in Medicine & Biology, 24, Supplement 1.
- AIUM, 2000. Mechanical Bioeffects from Diagnostic
Ultrasound: AIUM Consensus Statements, Journal of Ultrasound in Medicine
19/2. American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine, Bethesda, MD, USA.
- Ter Haar G and Duck FA, 2000. The Safe Use of
Ultrasound in Medical Diagnosis, British Medical Ultrasound Society/
British Institute of Radiology, 36 Portland Place, London, W1N 4AT.
The Safe Use of Ultrasound in Medical Diagnosis
is available from BMUS. please contact
us. |
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Ultrasound Safety &
Guidelines
