Investigation of cavitation in flowing media by lithotripter shock waves both in vitro and in vivo.

Cavitation produced by lithotripter shock waves was characterized in vitro in water and blood, and in vivo in aortic blood by means of a 1.6 MHz resonant bubble detector. This system was readily able to detect bubbles resulting from shock-wave induced cavitation in both water and blood flowing through plastic tubes in vitro, and even in blood pumped by the heart through a plastic arterio-venous shunt. However, this system was unable to detect evidence of shock-wave induced cavitational activity occurring within the intact vascular systems of dogs in vivo.