Medicine: New Waves

• Share

Medicine is one part human sympathy. Another part (at the opposite extreme) is an ever-growing assortment of complicated gadgetry. At the American Congress of Physical Medicine in Washington last week, two medical machines were given a thorough going-over.

Heat Wave. During the war, employees of the Raytheon Co., which made magnetron (microwave) tubes for radar, found that they could give themselves diathermy ("deep heat") treatments by standing near tubes on the test rack. Some of them got so enthusiastic that they thought the waves could "cure anything."

Raytheon had no such illusions, but its researchers did notice that the microwaves definitely helped certain conditions. They decided that the very short (five inch) waves from the tubes could be used as an improved sort of diathermy, to heat tissues deep in the body.

Last week's conference heard that the Raytheon Microtherm has advantages over ordinary diathermy. The beam of tiny waves can be concentrated on a small part of the body, heating it strongly, while leaving nearby parts unaffected. Conventional diathermy, with its 20-ft.-plus waves, heats larger areas.

Sound Effects. Ultrasonic (high frequency) sound waves were reported on by Dr. Julia F. Herrick, of the Mayo Foundation. These violent little waves (far too short for the ear to hear) can have strange effects on living organisms. They vibrate so fast that they leave small cavitations (empty spaces) between them, and these can tear microorganisms, or human cells, to bits.

"One obtains the impression," said Dr. Herrick, "that ultrasonics is a dangerous agent. However . . . what is harmful in large doses may be of great therapeutic and diagnostic value in smaller, appropriate doses." Dr. Herrick reported that the waves can be brought to a sharp focus, "permitting the heating of small, deeply seated areas without serious injury to the intervening tissues."