Hey guys,
just looking for some advice/experiences with relatively cheap, use at home ultrasound devices?
I’ve had achilles problems and have always found ultrasound treatments help reduce the pain and inflammation fairly quickly when performed by a proffessional physio with a expensive looking machine.
There seems to be a few cheap models around which are available for use at home. One in particular costs £130 and has the following spec:
Power supply: Input: AC 100-240V, 50/60 Hz, 0.35A Output: DC 15V, 1.2A
Frequency: 1MHz (±10%)
Mode: 3 levels (“L” low, “M” medium, “H” high)
Time: 5, 10 or 15 minutes with auto turn off
Power output: (0.7W/cm2 (L), 1.0W/cm2 (M), 1.2W/cm2 (H)
Pulse ratio: 30% (L), 40% (M), 50% (H)
BNR: < 8.0
Rated output power: 9.6W (±20%)
Effective intensity: 2.4W/cm2 (±20%)
ERA: 5 cm2
Does anyone have any experiences of these types of device? Do you get a similar effect to the proffessional machines? and if not does the ability to treat yourself much more regularly outweigh the lesser performance of these machines?
Cheers
Yes Polevaulter I do have experience with Ultra Sound kits. I missed most of last season due to Achilles Tendonitis, after shopping around and researching I found an excellent Kit from Canada. It has helped my Achilles immensely and I’m back running full throttle and only use it now for maintenance. It is not cheap, however, they do have specials and their customer service is excellent, go to; www.mendmeshop.com, you won’t regret it, very nice people who care.
You can give it a try but those are almost placebo devices. “Real” ultrasound requires some thought and a few parameters (not high/med/low).
Anyone else have any input on these portable ultrasound devices? I’ve seen machines with the same specifications as the one oldspeeder gave a link to on ebay for a much lower price.
Well we bought one of these devices anyway, mainly due to the low price compared to repeated physio treatments.
It has been used on a series of small niggling injuries within my training group with some success. After this I reccomended my dad purchase one of the cheap ones of ebay for help with his achilles problems from jogging. He says he no longer has pain the day after going for runs and can now run more often with out pain. It may just be a placebo, but my dad is a very sceptical guy, and does it really matter?
Admittedly these devices don’t seem to as good as a proper ultrasound in the hands of a trained proffesional, but the do seem to do something good and we don’t regret our purchases.