Total number of participants: 20
Total number of guests outside of CBC: 3
Number of different nationalities represented: 4
Total number of speakers: 1
Total number of talks: 1

As a part of a visit by Professor Randall LeVeque from the University of Washington, we organized a seminar with a talk " Algorithms for shock wave propagation in tissue, bones and kidney stones" in Bakrommet at 13:00.

Abstract

Algorithms for shock wave propagation in tissue, bones and kidney stones

Randall J. LeVeque
Applied Mathematics Dept
University of Washington

Extracorporal shock wave lithotripsy  (ESWL) is a well established
non-invasive clinical procedure for breaking up kidney stones by the
external application of shock waves that (ideally) focus on the kidney
stone with minimal collatoral damage.  Recently lithotripter devices
have been applied to treat a variety of other medical conditions where
the goal is to stimulate rather than to pulverize.  Applications of
extracorporal shock wave therapy (ESWT) include treatment of plantar
fasciitis, tennis elbow, hip necrosis, and non-unions (bone fractures
that do not heal on their own).

Numerical algorithms for modeling nonlinear elastic wave propagation
including shock waves are being developed in two and three space
dimensions to aid in the study of the mechanisms of ESWL and ESWT.
High resolution finite volume methods using Riemann solvers are employed
along with adaptive mesh refinement.   These methods work well for
wave propagation problems in heterogeneous media and can accurately
capture the transmission and reflection of waves at material interfaces
(e.g. tissue/bone), which is an essential aspect of this problem.

I will discuss these methods and some of the applications being studied in
work with student Kirsten Fagnan in connection with experiments being
performed in the UW Center for Industrial and Medical Ultrasound and clinical
work at the UW Medical School.