Medical applications of ultrasound range from therapy, foetal monitoring, diagnostic imaging and blood flow measurement, to surgery and lithotripsy. Ever since the earliest developments of medical ultrasound there has been an interest in the measurement and characterisation of the ultrasonic fields generated in these applications, either for assessment of performance of equipment or for safety. Until recently, procedures for acoustic output measurements were ill-defined, but standards are now being developed internationally by the International Electrotechnical Commission (1EC) and reliable...