Modern academic writing
Now see if you can see similar features in this modern medical abstract (N M Fried, et al. (2001), ‘Non-invasive vasectomy using a focused ultrasound clip: thermal measurements and simulations’)
INTRODUCTION:
Conventional surgical vasectomy may lead to complications including bleeding,
infection, and scrotal pain. Non-invasive transcutaneous
delivery of therapeutic focused ultrasound has previously been shown to
thermally occlude the vas deferens. However, skin burns and inconsistent vas
occlusion have presented complications. This study uses bio-heat transfer
simulations and thermocouple measurements to determine the optimal ablation dosimetry for vas occlusion without skin burns.
METHODS:
A 2-rad ultrasound transducer mounted on a vasectomy-clip-delivered
ultrasound energy at 4 MHz to the canine vas deferens co-located at the focus
between the clip jaws. Chilled degassed water was circulated through an
attached latex balloon, providing efficient ultrasound coupling into the tissue
and active skin cooling to prevent skin burns. Thermocouples placed at the vas,
intradermal, and skin surface locations recorded
temperatures during ablation. Procedures were performed with transducer
acoustic powers of 3-7 W and sonication times of 60–120
s on both the left and right vas deferens (n = 2) in a total of four
dogs (precooling control, 3 W/120 s, 5 W/90 s, 7 W/60
s). Measurements were compared with bio-heat transfer simulations modelling the
effects of variations in power and sonication time on
tissue temperatures and coagulation zones.
RESULTS:
Active skin cooling produces a thermal gradient in the tissue during ablation,
allowing sufficient thermal doses to be delivered to the vas without skin
burns. However, low-power, long-duration heating produced excessive tissue
necrosis due to thermal diffusion, while high power and short heating times
reduced the therapeutic window and produced skin burns presumably due to direct
ultrasound absorption.
CONCLUSIONS:
Both simulations and experiments suggest that a therapeutic window exists in
which thermal occlusion of the vas may be achieved without the formation of
skin burns in the canine model (power = 5–7 W, surface intensity = 1.4–1.9 W/cm2,
time = 20–50 s). This range of ablation parameters will help guide future
experiments to refine incisionless vasectomy using
focused ultrasound.
ablation removal or carrying away (from Latin)
dosimetry the measurement of doses (from Greek)
necrosis death of tissue (from Greek)
occlude stop or shut (from Latin)
sonication treatment with ultrasound (from L sonus ‘sound’ + ic + ation)
thermocouple ‘A thermoelectric device for measuring temperature, consisting of two different metals joined at a point so that the junction develops a voltage dependent on the amount by which its temperature differs from that of the other end of each metal.’ (OED)
transducer ‘Any device by which variations in one physical quantity (e.g. pressure, brightness) are quantitatively converted into variations in another (e.g. voltage, position)’ (OED)
transcutaneous L trans ‘across’ + L cutaneous ‘skin’
B.
Processes of standardisation
C.
The development of Standard English
D.
The development of academic writing