Monthly Archives: April 2013

How THOR pulses affect dose (they dont)

Posted on 29 April 2013 by James Carroll

THOR laser and LED treatment probes always give the same average power regardless if pulsed or continuous.

THOR pulses are not a fixed pulse width, the pulses are always 88% on 12% off so no matter what pulse frequency is used the the average power remains the same, even when compared with continuous.

This is because we increase the peak power in pulsed mode to compensate for the period when the beam is off.

At say 2.5Hz the THOR pulse width is calculated  0.88 / 2.5  = 0.352 seconds (352ms)

At say 10Hz the THOR pulse width is calculated 0.88 / 10 = 0.088 seconds (88ms)

At say 100Hz the THOR pulse width is calculated 0.88 / 100 = 0.0088 seconds (8.8ms)

How THOR pulses affect dose (they dont)

Posted in Special Feature | Leave a comment

THOR Literature watch for March 2013 Low Level Laser Therapy / Cold Laser / Photobiomodulation PBM

Posted on 15 April 2013 by James Carroll

28 new papers for you this month, starting with the most entertaining: “successful management of acute-onset torticollis in a giraffe” which included a laser to reduce “cervical muscle hypertonicity”, an RCT on cellulite (see commentary), an analysis of 589 tooth extractions in patients under bisphosphonate therapy following LLLT, chronic rhinosinusitis, oral lichen planus, combined bone marrow aspirate and LLLT on bone healing, mesenchymal stem cells and LLLT on peripheral nerve regeneration and more …

Posted in Research | Leave a comment

Unbelievable results

Posted on 14 April 2013 by James Carroll

At first glance this cellulite paper looks like a well designed study, but if you are familiar with LLLT parameters then you may notice something odd about them:
6 treatments (3 x week for 2 weeks) this is probably a good treatment interval
8 x 10 inches (516 cm2) that is a very large area
5 x 17mW Green 532nm this is a poor penetrating wavelength
Combined power of 102mW that is a tiny amount of power for such a large area
Irradiance 0.2mW/cm2 that is less than sunshine on a clear day
15 mins twice (two side of the body) that is a long treatment time
Fluence (dose) 0.18J/cm2 per side that is not enough to do anything

Posted in Rants | Leave a comment