[Technical safety in ultrasound diagnosis]

Technical devices and systems are getting more and more complex in diagnostic ultrasound. Safety aspects of ultrasound equipment are defined as "electrical safety", "safety of ultrasound" and "functional safety". Proposals are made to increase the safety of ultrasound and its interactions with mammalian cell cultures in order to establish a biological standard. A model of safety control is discussed. In future it will be necessary to pay increasing attention to questions on the efficiency of ultrasonic diagnosis and the responsibility of the examiner, since safe equipment alone cannot guarantee safe results if the examiner is unable to use the equipment properly and to interpret the resulting data correctly.