• Journal of Korean Physical Therapy Science
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.7-14
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• 2002

The drug therapy for rheumatoid arthritis must be maintained constantly or for the whole life but is apt to induce the adverse effects in gastrointestinal or renal system. Therefor, newer methods are paid attention to reduce adverse effects. The thirty-two rat female separated into seven groups depending on the therapy or Freund's adjuvant applied: Normal group(n=8) not received anything, Positive control group(n=8) only received adjuvant, USC group(n=8) received continuous US, USP group(n=8) received pulsed US. The physical and radiological findings by thermal and non-thermal effects of ultrasound were evaluated in groups with continuous mode at 1 MHz, $0.5\;W/cm^2$ for 6 minutes and with pulsed mode (duty cycle 1:9) at 1 MHz, $0.5\;W/cm^2$ for 6 minutes. The result summarized followings. 1. Swelling of forepaw and hindpaw was significantly reduced in USP. 2. Arthritis indices in USP group were significantly reduced than those in PCG. 3. In naked eye and radiologic findings, swelling was significantly prevented in USP group but not in PCG. The change of swelling, arthritis index, gross feature in naked eye, radiologic finding were significantly improved in all groups except for USC group, taking care for using its continuous mode.