Paperback edition of 17x24.5 cm and XIV-220 pages, with 57 figures and 15 tables, analytical index, 420 bibliographic references.
Presentation by Umberto M. Marinari (Professor of General Pathology - University of Genoa).

Chapters Index:

1. Recalls on the physics of sound.

2. Audible sounds (part one).

3. Audible sounds (part two).

4. Infrasounds and shock waves.

5. Low frequency mechanical vibrations.

6. Low frequency vibrations' imaging in tissues.

7. High frequency mechanical vibrations: ultrasounds.

8. Electromagnetic-acoustic transduction (EMA transduction effect) and acoustic-electromagnetic transduction (AEM transduction effect).

9. Cellular biomechanics and mechanobiology.

10. The cellular migration.

11. A cytoskeleton made of filaments and microtubules in perpetual movement.

12. Exchange of signals and forces between cells and extracellular matrix.

13. The mechanotransduction.

14. Cellular effects from low frequency mechanical stimuli.

15. Recalls of anatomy and physiology of the bone.

16. Mechanical and electrical forces during bone life. Healing of fractures.

17. Elements of vegetable physiology for an approach to mechanobiology of plants.

18. Conclusions and research prospects.

To the Reader
It is well known that intense noise and music at very-high intensity are causing hypoacusis and industrial vibrations can cause severe occupational diseases. It is less known, however, that sounds and vibrations can penetrate in-depth the body, by interacting - at certain exposure leves - both with fetus in uterus, and with tissues and non-auditory organs of the adult, from gastric-intestinal apparatus to heart and brain. But acoustic and vibrational energies (e.g. low-intensity ultrasound pulsed at low frequency) have an important role in regeneration of soft tissue and bone tissue, that find scientific validation thanks to recent conquests in the field of Biomechanics and Mechanobiology. Today is possible to evaluate the risk/benefit ratio of these energies, thanks to recent conquests of mechanobiology, a field with a very quick development, worldwide. In fact, it has the big merit of explaining us not only the pathogenesis of possible harmful effects, but also the mechanism of beneficent therapeutic effects obtainable with sounds, vibrations, infrasounds, ultrasounds and shock waves. In particular, to explain the mechanisms that subtend the regeneration of soft tissues and bone tissues using mechanical energies at different frequencies.

This book is addressed to both Researchers, in the field of Biology and Biophysics, and to many Specialists in the field of Medicine, like: Medical Physics, Occupational Medicine; Physicians and Operators in the field of Rehabilitation Physiotherapy, Music Therapy, Neurophysiology, Orthopaedics, Otorhinolaringology, Paediatrics, Radiology and Urology, as well as Operators in the field of Environmental Protection and INAIL Institutes, who will find - in this modern and original contribution - many important starting points for their profession.

By the same Author:

1. F. Bistolfi. La Cronobiodose in Radioterapia. Padova 1967. Piccin Editore.

2. F. Bistolfi (ed.). L'Ipertermia in Terapia Oncologica. Padova 1981. Piccin Editore.

3. F. Bistolfi (ed.). Campi Magnetici in Medicina. Biologia Diagnostica Terapia. Torino 1986. Edizioni Minerva Medica.

4. F. Bistolfi. Radiazioni non ionizzanti. Ordine Disordine e Biostrutture. Torino 1989. Edizioni Minerva Medica.

5. F. Bistolfi. Biostructures and Radiation Order Disorder. Torino 1991. Edizioni Minerva Medica.

6. F. Bistolfi. Radioterapia Oncologica/Radiation Oncology. Edizione bilingue. Torino 1997. Edizioni Minerva Medica.