[The safety of diagnostic continuous wave ultrasonic irradiation-a clinical study serum hemoglobulin level and scanning electron microscopic finding of maternal and cord blood in vitro (author's transl)].

In order to check the safety of diagnostic continuous wave ultrasonic irradiation, a clinical study, serum hemoglobin level and scanning electron microscopic finding of ultrasound irradiated blood were studied. The following results were obtained. 1. Clinical study: Ultrasonic examination were carried out on 6788 pregnant women at the first trimester of gestation. In test group, rate of abortion and premature delivery, fetal malformation and small for date gestation were not significant higher than those of control group. Neither timing of first examination nor number of examinations at the first trimester seemed to increase above mentioned abnormality. 2. Serum hemoglobin level: Blood exposed 2 to 12 hours to low intensity ultrasound (20 mw/cm2) showed significantly higher serum hemoglobin level than that of control group. However, blood exposed 40 to 120 minutes to high intensity ultrasound (2.6 w/cm2) have significant higher hemoglobin level than that of control group. 3. Scanning electron microscopic finding: Erythrocyte exposed 4 to 24 hours to low intensity ultrasound have no significantly different scanning electron microscopic finding when compared to that of control group. However, deformed erythrocytes were significantly higher than those of control group after exposure to 40 to 120 minutes to high intensity ultrasound.