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Measurement and Analysis of Impulse Source Produced by Ballistic Shock Wave Therapy Device in Different Medium Using PVDF Sensor

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Abstract

Purpose

Radial extracorporeal shock wave therapy (rESWT) has been used in clinical and rehabilitation fields. However, the formulation of related clinical treatment protocols and the full potential of its therapeutic efficacy are constrained due to limited understanding of shock wave sources. This study aimed to further clarify the characteristics of shock wave sources generated at different medium interfaces.

Methods

Shock wave generated by rESWT device at the interface of different media (soft tissue-mimicking-phantom, water and air) was measured based on flexible polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) sensors. The temporal and spectral characteristics of the shock wave source were analyzed.

Results

The wave generated at the phantom interface was similar to that at the water interface under the same impact pressure, both being largely different from that at the air interface, where the absolute value of the peak pressure was significantly reduced. The spectral properties of the shock wave generated in different media were similar, with distinct peak frequencies, varying modulation frequencies in phantom (12.2 kHz), water (8.5 kHz), and air (7.2 kHz), and a relatively constant carrier frequency (between 82 and 83 kHz). Under the different impact pressures, there were no variations in the peak frequency at the same medium interface, indicating that the impact pressure mainly impacts the shock wave amplitude, but not the peak frequency.

Conclusion

The shock waves generated at different medium interfaces exhibited temporal and spectral differences. Therefore, measurement results in biological soft tissues cannot be simply replaced by the measurement results in air or water. The results of this study are expected to provide important information for evaluating rESWT devices and optimizing clinical shock wave treatment protocols.

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Funding

This work was funded by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (Grant 2020YFC0122201), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant 32071315), and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (Grant YWF-22-L-1234).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Biological Science and Medical Engineering, Beihang University, Beijing, 100191, China

    Fan Fan, Liansheng Xu, Qiong Wu, Fei Shen, Li Wang, Fengji Li, Yubo Fan & Haijun Niu

Authors
  1. Fan Fan
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  2. Liansheng Xu
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  3. Qiong Wu
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  4. Fei Shen
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  5. Li Wang
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  6. Fengji Li
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  7. Yubo Fan
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  8. Haijun Niu
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Contributions

FF, YF, and HN conceived and designed the study. FF and HN established the protocol. LX, QW and FS performed the experiments. LX, LW and FL helped with data processing. FF and HN wrote the manuscript, and all other authors reviewed and commented on the draft. All authors have read and approved the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Haijun Niu.

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Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

Ethical Approval

This is an observational study. The Beihang University Research Ethics Committee has confirmed that no ethical approval is required.

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Fan, F., Xu, L., Wu, Q. et al. Measurement and Analysis of Impulse Source Produced by Ballistic Shock Wave Therapy Device in Different Medium Using PVDF Sensor. J. Med. Biol. Eng. 44, 35–42 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40846-024-00845-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40846-024-00845-z

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