A survey of the acoustic outputs of diagnostic ultrasound equipment in current clinical use

Surveys which were published up to 1991 highlighted a steady increase in the acoustic outputs from diagnostic ultrasound equipment. Since 1991, several measurements concerned with the maximum peak negative pressure and spatial peak temporal average intensity were conducted in the Northern region of UK. In addition, measurements which focused on the maximum total acoustic power generated by 45 probes from 17 scanners were also conducted. In this paper, the results of these measurements are presented and compared to the results of a similar survey of equipment from both the Northern and Wessex Regions in the UK which were published in 1991.