I picked up a 3MHz sonicator with a 5 cm2 applicator (old used Mettler with built in limit 2.2 W/cm2 regardless of probe size). Tried 5 min at 1.5 W/cm2 and could sense the heat build up but no way to tell the temperature. Will try longer time at possibly lower intensity if necessary to see when the transition to the magical soft state happens. Probably will need to make a gel pad from a ziplock bag filled with gel or pick up one of the Aquaflex gel pads to place on the other side. What pads do you use? I was also contemplating carving a slot in some gel block to place the unit in while heating.
I do not have any extender coming from manual stretching and pumping so will be limited to US preheating followed by manual stretching while cooling. Do you think this approach has merit or is heating while stretching absolutely essential? I can pick up some vac hanger in the future for more controlled load application via weights. Can use a bottle filled with water or a different weight system and if necessary a block for angle control but likely straight down would be sufficient.
I came across an article that claims that heating is at least 3 times as rapid with 3MHz than 1 MHz so need to be careful going by feel alone.
At 1.5 W/cm2 and 3 MHz it took them 4 min to reach 40C at 2.5 cm depth in muscle whereas at 1MHz did not reach over 37C in 10 min.
Three-MHz Ultrasound Heats Deeper Into the Tissues Than Originally Theorized - PMC
They also reference another study "Draper et al found that 3-MHz ultrasound at 1.5 W/ cm2 heated at a rate of 0.9°C/min and 1-MHz ultrasound heated at a rate of 0.3°C/min. These findings make perfect sense because the crystal is deforming 3 times faster; thus, the energy should be absorbed 3 times faster. Yet, if we compare our data using the Theratouch 7.7, we see that 3-MHz ultrasound heated at a rate of 1.19°C/min (close to, yet faster than, the Draper et al 3-MHz data), whereas 1-MHz ultrasound heated at a rate of only 0.13°C/min"