Cardiovascular System

Overview of the Cardiovascular System, Blood Circulation, Wound Healing, and the Lymphatic System

The cardiovascular system is a transport network that affects every part of the body and provides for the rapid transport of water, nutrients, electrolytes, hormones, enzymes, antibodies, cells, and gases to all cells.
The three primary components of the cardiovascular system are the heart, the vascular system (a network of blood vessels that includes veins, arteries, and capillaries), and the circulating blood.
The human heart is a muscular organ about the size of a man's closed fist, with four chambers and located slightly left of the midline in the thoracic cavity.
Blood pressure increases during ventricular systole and decreases during ventricular diastole, and the average heart beats 60 to 80 times per minute.
Three kinds of blood vessels exist in the human body: arteries, veins, and capillaries. Arteries are highly oxygenated vessels that carry blood away from the heart, and veins carry blood toward the heart. Capillaries permit the exchange of gases (o2 and Co2) and other molecules between blood and surrounding tissues.
Circulating blood provides nutrients, oxygen, chemical substances, and waste removal for each of the billions of individual cells in the body and is essential to homeostasis and to sustaining life.
Haemostasis is a complex series of processes in which platelets, plasma, and coagulation factors interact to control bleeding while at the same time maintaining circulating blood in the liquid state.
Wound healing is a natural restorative response to tissue injury, traditionally explained in terms of 4 overlapping classic phases: haemostasis, inflammation, proliferation, and maturation.
The lymph system is a collection of thin tubes that carries colourless liquid called lymph, which travels around the tissues of the body and carries white blood cells.
The main function of the lymphatic system is to fight infection, distribute excess fluid and transport fats around the body.
Throughout the miles of lymph vessels, there are small round nodes or glands, which are bean-shaped structures covered in a capsule of connective tissue, and here the white blood cells fight infection.
The lymph node may swell and become painful and sore, and some nodes cannot be felt, for example, those in the abdomen, chest and pelvis.Overview of Lymphatic System and Ultrasound Cavitation
The lymphatic system is responsible for filtering lymph and removing bacteria, but can also trap cancer cells, causing swollen lymph nodes.
Lymph vessels are thin-walled tubes that carry lymph, and lymph capillaries are found in virtually every organ of the body.
The lymphatic system includes four main organs: the spleen, thymus, tonsils, and adenoids.
Bone marrow produces red and white blood cells, including lymphocytes, which circulate in both the blood and lymph systems.
The nervous system consists of the central nervous system (brain and spinal cord) and the peripheral nervous system (everything else).
The autonomic nervous system controls involuntary functions like heartbeat and breathing.
Ultrasound cavitation is a non-invasive body sculpting technique that uses ultrasound technology to cause cavitation and rupture adipocytes, releasing triglycerides.
High-Intensity Focused Ultrasound (HIFU) is a more effective form of ultrasound for body contouring than non-focused low-intensity ultrasound.
Non-focused low-intensity ultrasound is still commonly used for non-invasive body sculpting.
Ultrasound can induce biological effects through thermal and non-thermal mechanisms, including ultrasonic cavitation and mechanical stress.
Therapeutic ultrasound has been used since the 1930s for various conditions, including Meniere's disease and Parkinson's disease.
Increasing frequency, nonlinear acoustic distortion, or pulse length in ultrasound can increase heating and enhance some bioeffects.Ultrasound Applications and Mechanisms: From Physical Therapy to Sonophoresis and High Intensity Focused Ultrasound
Ultrasound can induce bioeffects in biological tissues through thermal and nonthermal mechanisms, such as radiation force and cavitation.
The likelihood and magnitude of bioeffects increase with increasing power or intensity and decreasing frequency.
Therapeutic ultrasound devices can use short bursts or continuous waves to deliver effective ultrasonic energy to tissues, either through unfocused heating for enhanced healing or focused beams for tissue ablation.
For diagnostic ultrasound, temperature elevations and the potential for bioeffects are kept relatively low or negligible through careful indications for use, limited intensities, and short exposure durations.
Physical therapy ultrasound treatments, also known as therapeutic ultrasound, involve warming tendons, muscles, and other tissues to improve blood flow and accelerate healing, but its clinical benefit remains uncertain.
Sonophoresis is the movement of product molecules through the skin under the influence of ultrasound, which can disrupt the stratum corneum lipid bilayer and enhance transdermal delivery of products.
Low-frequency sonophoresis (LFS) and high-frequency sonophoresis (HFS) are commonly used for transdermal delivery applications, with LFS primarily enhancing skin permeability through rectified diffusion and HFS through cavitation.
Cavitation, the process by which a liquid is pulled apart when acted upon by a force in excess of its tensile strength, can occur as stable or transient bubbles, and is the main contributor to skin permeability enhancement by sonophoresis.
High-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) can induce cellular damage and volume reduction of a target area selectively by generating instant microthermal lesions through the accumulation of high-frequency ultrasound beams at the specific tissue site without any damage to the epidermis and adjacent tissue.
Ultrasound can also be used for skin exfoliation and product penetration through the use of a skin scrubber/ultrasonic spatula, and for extracorporeal shockwave therapy (ESWT) to blast off hard structures and promote healing.
The risk of harm, such as burns, appears to be low when ultrasound modalities are properly applied.
Experimental variables in sonophoresis include ultrasound duty cycle, horn-to-skin distance, treatment time, and composition of the ultrasound coupling medium, with LFS coupling media typically aqueous and HFS coupling media typically gels.Understanding Body Fat and Ultrasound Treatment
Excess body fat can be problematic, and fat distribution (where it is located) can affect health risks.
Genetics, sex, age, and hormones influence fat allocation.
Body fat distribution is a better predictor of health hazards than the absolute amount of body fat.
Adipose tissue (fat) is a connective tissue that serves various purposes in the body.
There are two types of adipose tissue: white and brown.
White adipose tissue is mainly for energy storage but is also an endocrine organ that secretes hormones called adipokines.
Brown adipose tissue is involved in thermogenesis, generating heat to maintain body temperature.
Cellulite is a common topographical alteration in the skin caused by fibrosis of the connective tissues between the dermis and subcutaneous fat.
Cellulite can be graded into four stages, and treatment should take into account skin laxity and underlying extracellular matrix.
Ultrasound treatment can be used to reduce or shrink swelling in the area or fat cells.
Ultrasound treatment requires precautions to be observed, and there are risks, including burns and tissue damage.
There are several contraindications to ultrasound treatment, and client consultation is essential before treatment.