PHONOPHORESIS
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From: BUhlemann@aol.com
 
An internist in our group showed me a letter he had received from a patient
requesting a corticosteroid cream to treat "Muscle Inflammation".  It was to
be put under "Ultrasound Paddles"  and thereby "pushed into the muscles".
 The letter, signed by the director of a local physical therapy center, said
this was a new treatment called Phonophoresis.  The idea seemed nutty beyond
belief (think of the implications).  Has anyone else heard of this?
Where did it get started?                                  John Uhlemann

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From: cotsarel@mail.med.upenn.edu (George Cotsarelis)
 
Although the idea "seems nutty," you might want to check out an article in
Science entitled "Ultrasound-Mediated Transdermal Protein Delivery" by
Mitragotri et al. from  August 11, 1995,vol. 269,pp 850-53. In an
experimental system, they were able to deliver fairly large proteins such
as insulin and erythropoitin through the epidermis using ultrasound.  There
was no mention of entry into muscle. From the article, the technology to
apply this technique to patients seemed years away, so I would request that
your colleagues provide us with some references for what they are actually
doing. Chances are, they are over/misinterpreting the results of this
paper!

George Cotsarelis