[Lung hemorrhage caused by diagnostic ultrasound. Review of the literature].

In animals pulsed diagnostic ultrasound is capable of causing subpleural capillary lung bleeding if the pressure amplitude is above 1 MPa. Precondition is pulmonary ventilation; fetal organs are, therefore, not at risk. Capillary lung bleeding is a threshold effect depending on pressure amplitude and frequency. The degree of injury is apparently also influenced by the alveolar size. The same effect can be observed in the intestine at pressure amplitudes above 2 MPa. It is not known whether the effect is also caused by sonographic examination in humans. Should this be the case, the lesions would be of minor relevance and probably without any clinical symptoms. Nevertheless, during examination it would be advisable to restrict the ultrasound exposure of lung and intestine to the minimum necessary for reliable diagnosis.