Use of chemical dosimetry for comparison of ultrasound and ionizing radiation effects on cavitation.

A comparison of the effects of ultrasound produced by low- and high-frequency ultrasonic apparatuses upon biological systems is one of the basic problems when studying ultrasound cavitation effects. One possibility for how to compare these effects is the indirect method which uses well-known physical quantities characterizing the interaction of ionizing radiation with matter and which also converts these quantities to one common physical quantity. The comparison was performed with two methods applied to the chemical dosimetry of ionizing radiation. The first method employed a two-component dosimeter which is composed of 50 % chloroform and 50 % re-distilled water (i.e. Taplin dosimeter). The other method used a modified iodide dosimeter prepared from a 0.5 M potassium iodide solution. After irradiation or ultrasound exposure, measurable chemical changes occurred in both dosimeters. The longer the exposure, the greater the chemical changes. These effects are described by the relationship of these changes versus the exposure times in both dosimeters. The UZD 21 ultrasonic disintegrator (with a frequency of 20 kHz, 50 % power output) was used as a low-frequency ultrasound source, and the BTL-07 therapeutic instrument (with a frequency of 1 MHz and intensity of 2 W/cm2) was used as a high-frequency cavitation ultrasound source. For comparison, a 60 Co gamma source was applied (60 Co, gamma energies of 1.17 and 1.33 MeV, activity of 14 PBq). Results of this study have demonstrated that the sonochemical products are generated during exposure in the exposed samples of both dosimeters for all apparatuses used. The amount of these products depends linearly upon the exposure time. The resulting cavitation effects were recalculated to a gray-equivalent dose (the proposed unit is cavitation gray [cavitGy]) based on the sonochemical effects compared to the effects of ionizing radiation from the 60 Co source.