Medical acoustics highlights of the 157th ASA Meeting, May 18-22 in Portland

May 14, 2009 -- Sound has a long history in medicine, from the earliest 19th century stethoscopes to the latest ultrasound techniques that image growing fetuses and beating hearts. These days, sound waves are emerging as the basis of many new medical technologies -- helping to deliver genes and drugs to specific tissues, detecting bacterial infections and kidney stones, trimming the prostate, and many other applications. Acoustics is also blending with other disciplines such as neuroscience to help people with speech and hearing problems.

Journalists are invited to discover the world of medical acoustics at the 157th meeting of the Acoustical Society of America (ASA), which convenes from May 18-22 at the Hilton Portland & Executive Tower in Portland, Oregon. Medical acoustics is only one theme represented in more than 1,100 talks and posters to be presented at the meeting. Overall, acoustics is a cross-section of diverse disciplines that also includes architecture, underwater research, psychology, physics, animal bioacoustics, music, noise control, and speech.

Included below is a sample of newsworthy research related to medical acoustics. Registration information for journalists can be found at the end of the release.

MEDICAL HIGHLIGHTS

1. Explosive Shock Waves Flex Skulls
2. Pair of Bionic Ears Helps to Distinguish Left from Right
3. Twinkle, Twinkle Little Kidney Stone
4. Exploding Bubbles Trim the Prostate
5. Gene-Laden Bubbles Help Grow New Blood Vessels
6. Homing Bubbles Spot Biofilms

1) EXPLOSIVE SHOCK WAVES FLEX SKULLS

Over Sunday breakfast one morning, physicist William Moss and his wife discussed a newspaper article about soldiers wounded in Iraq. The troops' modern body armor had failed to protect them against shock waves released by explosions, which cause traumatic brain injury (TBI). How blast waves damage the brain was a mystery, so Moss' wife, a neuroscientist, offered him a challenge: "you can simulate that, can't you?"

Using computer models at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Moss and colleagues Michael King and Eric Blackman of the University of Rochester have found evidence that mild shock waves have the potential to damage the brain by deforming the skull. The results may pave the way for better helmet designs.

Most brain injuries are caused by an impact with a hard object, as in a car crash. The head can experience 200 G's or more of acceleration, slamming the brain against the inner wall of the skull. Shock waves from explosions can also damage the brain, but the mechanism by which this happens is still poorly understood.