Hypothesis: ultrasonography can document dynamic in vivo rouleaux formation due to mobile phone exposure

" Carrying a cellphone against the body has become commonplace in our world replete with smartphones. Acute and chronic health effects caused by these devices emitting radiofrequency radiation from multiple antennas have not been well evaluated. In this study, the popliteal vein of a healthy volunteer was imaged with ultrasonography prior to and following the placement of an idle, but active smartphone against her knee for 5 min. Pre-exposure longitudinal sonographic images demonstrate a normal anechoic lumen to the popliteal vein. Images obtained 5 min after direct skin exposure to the smartphone demonstrate a dramatic change in the acoustic appearance of the vessel. The interior of the vessel became coarsely hypoechoic with sluggish flow seen in real-time images, a typical sonographic appearance for rouleaux formation. A follow up examination performed 5 min after the subject walked around yielded continued rouleaux formation in the popliteal vein, albeit less dramatic than that observed immediately post exposure. This revolutionary in vivo method to assess radiofrequency radiation induced rouleaux formation should be further pursued in the general population to determine its prevalence and if its occurrence provides a unique biomarker of exposure that may predict morbidity."

" In 2013, Havas documented rouleaux formation with live blood cell analysis following a 10-min human exposure to a 2.4 GHz cordless phone by utilizing dark field microscopy (8). Although not peer reviewed, Rubik reported red blood cell (RBC) aggregation via dark field microscopy in 10 human subjects who had been exposed to mobile phone radiation for two consecutive 45-min intervals (9). Live blood analysis utilizing dark field microscopy is a static technique criticized as being fraught with potential technical challenges that can lead to false positive results. As such, the findings reported by both researchers have largely been discounted by the scientific community. In comparison, sonography is a useful, non-invasive tool affording dynamic in vivo assessment of RBC aggregation and altered flow characteristics without potential technical errors prone to dark field microscopy. There is no risk for damage to the RBCs from blood extraction or manipulation in tubing, tubes or plates. Nor is the time period between extraction and analysis relevant. Furthermore, in vivo analysis affords the ability to document dynamic changes in real-time."

" Although the cellphone was inactive during the exposure period, it is well known that frequent, periodic communication “handshaking” via the emission of radiofrequency radiation occurs between the cellphone and cell tower to maintain connectivity with the cellular network while the phone is turned on."

{Credits 1} 🎪 Brown RR and Biebrich B (2025) Hypothesis: ultrasonography can document dynamic in vivo rouleaux formation due to mobile phone exposure. Front. Cardiovasc. Med. 12:1499499. doi: 10.3389/fcvm.2025.1499499. © 2025 The Author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License.