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The Second Coming of Ultrasound (wired.com)
Ultrasound, which works on the principle of piezoelectricity, is finding a second lease of life in medicine, Wired outlines. Applying voltage to a piezoelectric crystal makes it vibrate, sending out a sound wave. When the echo that bounces back is converted into electrical signals, you get an image of, say, a fetus, or a submarine. But in the last few years, the lo-fi tech has reinvented itself in some weird new ways. From a report: Researchers are fitting people's heads with ultrasound-emitting helmets to treat tremors and Alzheimer's. They're using it to remotely activate cancer-fighting immune cells. Startups are designing swallowable capsules and ultrasonically vibrating enemas to shoot drugs into the bloodstream. One company is even using the shockwaves to heal wounds -- stuff Curie never could have even imagined. So how did this 100-year-old technology learn some new tricks? With the help of modern-day medical imaging, and lots and lots of bubbles.
They are looking at having active medical dressing to heal wounds. If you have something like an arterial blister (which is when the actual arteries in the skin disintegrate due to infection and cause the rest of the skin tissue to die), then the only treatment is a synthetic blister, or a waterproof bandage with a porous non-stick layer, hydrogel interior and waterproof exterior to draw out the infection and absorb exudate. This takes months as the wound can only close as the edges shrink and requires the dressing replaced weekly to replace iodine pads. They are looking at ways of accelerating blood circulation in the area. One way is through ultrasonic vibration to help molecules cross cell membranes and accelerate growth.
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/adfm.201603497/full