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A short History of the development of Ultrasound in Obstetrics and Gynecology
Dr. Joseph Woo
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Some of the early references:
Curie. J.P., Curie. (1880) Développement par pression de l'é'lectricite polaire dans les cristaux hémièdres à faces inclinées. C.R. Acad. Sci. (Paris) 91:294.
Chilowsky C.M. Langévin. M.P. (1916) Procídés et appareil pour production de signaux sous-marins dirigés et pour la localsation à distances d'obstacles sons-marins. French patent no. 502913.
Langévin, M.P. (1928) Lés ondes ultrasonores. Rev Gen Elect 23:626.
Firestone, F.A. (1945) The supersonic reflectoscope for interior inspection. Met. Progr, 48:505-512.
Firestone, F.A. (1945) The supersonic reflectoscope, an instrument of inspecting the interior of solid parts by means of sound waves. J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 17:287-299.
Desch, C.H., Sproule, D.O. and Dawson, W.J. (1946) The detection of cracks in steel by means of supersonic waves. J. Iron and Steel Inst. (1964):319.
Tanaka, K., Miyajima, G., Wagai, T., Yasuura, M. Kikuchi, Y and Uchida, R. Detection of intracranial anatomical abnormalities by ultrasound. Tokyo Med. J. 69:525. (1950).
Tanaka, K. (1952) Application of ultrasound to diagnostic field. Electr. Ind. 3.
Miyajima, G., Wagai, T., Fukushima, Y., Uchida, R. and Hagiwara, I. (1952) Detection of intracranial disease by pulsed ultrasound. Tokyo Med. J. 72:37
Dussik, K.T. (1942) Uber die moglichkeit hochfrequente mechanische schwingungen als diagnostisches hilfsmittel zu verwerten. Z Neurol Psychiat 174:153.
Dussik, K.T. (1942) On the possibility of using ultrasound waves as a diagnostic aid. Neurol. Psychiat. 174:153-168.
Dussik, K.T., Dussik, F. and Wyt, L. (1947) Auf dem Wege Zur Hyperphonographie des Gehirnes. Wien. Med. Wochenschr. 97:425-429
Dussik, K.T. (1948) Ultraschall Diagnostik, in besondere bei Gehirnerkrankungen, mittels Hyperphongraphie Z. Phys. Med. 1:140-145.
Dussik, K.T. (1949) Zum heutigen stand der medizinischen ultraschallforschung. Wien. Klin. Wochenschr. 61:246-248.
Ludwig, G.D., Bolt, R.H., Hueter, T.F. and Ballantine, H.T. (1950) Factors influencing the use of ultrasound as a diagnostic aid. Trans. Am. Neurol. Assoc. 225-228
Ludwig, G.D. and Ballantine, H.T. (1950) Ultrasonic irradiation of nervous tissue. Surgical Forum, Clinical Congress of the American College of Surgeons P. 400.
Ludwig, G.D. (1950) The velocity of sound through tissues and the acoustic impedance of tissues. J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 22:862-866
Ludwig, G.D. and Struthers, F.W. Detecting gallstones with ultrasonic echoes. Electronics 23:172-178. (1950).
Wild, J.J., French, L.A. and Neal, D. Detection of cerebral tumours by ultrasonic pulses. Cancer 4:705. (1950).
Wild, J.J. The use of ultrasonic pulses for the measurement of biological tissues and the detection of tissue density changes. Surgery 27:183-188. (1950).
Wild, J.J., Neal, D. (1951) Use of high frequency ultrasonic waves for detecting changes in texture in living tissue. Lancet 1:655.
Wild, J.J. and Reid, J.M. (1952) Application of echo-ranging techniques to the determination of structure of biological tissues. Science 115:226-230.
Wild, J.J. and Reid, J.M. (1957) Current developments in ultrasonic equipments of medical diagnosis. IRE Trans. Ultrason. Engng. 5:44-56.
Howry, D.H. (1952) The ultrasonic visualization of soft tissue structures and disease processes. J. Lab. Clin. Med. 40:812-813.
Howry, D.H. and Bliss, W.R. (1952) Ultrasonic visualization of soft tissue structures of the body. J. Lab. Clin. Med. 40:579-592.
Howry, D.H. (1958) Development of an ultrasonic diagnostic instrument. Am. J. Phys. Med. 37:234.
Holmes, J.H., Howry, D.H., Posakony, G.J. and Cushman, C.R. (1954) The ultrasonic visualization of soft tissue structures in the human body. Trans. Am. Clin. Climatol. Assoc. 66:208-223
Donald, I., MacVicar, J. and Brown, T.G. (1958) Investigation of abdominal masses by pulsed ultrasound. Lancet 1:1188-1195.
Donald, I. (1961) Ultrasonic radiations: Diagnostic applications. Tools of Biological Research 3rd Series. Blackwell Scientific Publications, Oxford. pp. 148-155.
Donald, I. And Brown, T.G. (1961) Diagnostic applications of ultrasound. Proc. 3rd. Int. Conf. Med. Electron. London. P. 458.
Donald, I. And Brown, T.G. (1961) Demonstration of tissue interfaces within the body by ultrasonic echo sounding. Br. J. Radiol. 34:539-546.
Donald, I. (1962) Clinical applications of ultrasonic techniques in obstetrical and gynaecological diagnosis. Br. J. Obstet. Gynaecol. 69:1036.
Donald, I. (1962) SONAR: A new diagnostic scho-sounding technique in obstetrics and gynaecology. Proc. Roy. Soc. Med. 55:637-638.
Donald, I. (1974) SONAR. The Story of an experiment.Ultrasound Med Biol 1:109-117.
Acknowledgements:
Images of George Ludwig and his early ultrasound equipment courtesy of the Ludwig Family. Reproduced with permission.
Image of the Denver somascope reproduced with permission from Mr. GJ Posakony.
Images of the Denver pan-scanner and Dr. Toshio Wagai were reproduced with permission from Dr. Barry Goldberg, Chairman of the Archives Committee of the AIUM. Pictures of this, as well as other early scanners can be found in the Eastman Kodak Health Sciences publication, "Medical Diagnostic Ultrasound: A retrospective on its 40th anniversary" by Drs. Goldberg and Kimmelman published in 1988.
Image of Dr. John Wild courtesy of Dr. Wild.
^ Dr. William O'Brien Jr., Professor, Bioaccoustic Research Laboratory, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Illinois.
** Courtesy of KretzTechnik AG, Zipf, Austria.
Images of the NE 4102 reproduced with permission from Dr. RG Law, from his book 'Ultrasound in Clinical Obstetrics', John Wright and Sons Ltd, Bristol, 1980.
# Press release, Third meeting of the Federation of Ultrasound in Medicine and Biology, Brighton, England, July 1982.
## from "Sonar -- the Story of an Experiment" by Professor Ian Donald which appeared in Ultrasound in Medicine and Biology, vol 1 pp109-117, 1974.
Pictures of Professors Bertil Sunden and Salvator Levi courtesy of Professor Levi.
^^ Courtesy of the Department of Ultrasonics, Polish Academy of Science.
ref raw data from "Ultrasound in Biomedicine - Cumulative Bibliography of the World Literature to 1978" by Drs. Denis White, Geraldine Clark, Joan Carson and Elizabeth White. Pergamon Press 1982.
¥ The story of the early development of sonar in Glasgow was vividly narrated in the article "Sonar -- the Story of an Experiment" by Professor Ian Donald which appeared in Ultrasound in Medicine and Biology, vol 1 pp109-117, 1974.
°° Personal communications from Professor Xin-Fang Wang and Dr. Jing Deng, University College, London.
Other important references for this Internet article included:
"The constitution of diagnostic ultrasound in Insight and industry, On the dynamics of technological change in medicine", by S Blume. Cambridge, Massachusetts The MIT Press, 1992: 74-118.
"In the image of science. Negotiating the development of diagnostic ultrasound in the cultures of surgery and radiology in Technology and culture" by Koch E. Society for the History of Technology, 1993; 34:858-893.
"Seeing with sound: A study of the development of medical images" by Edward Yoxen, in "The social construction of technological systems: New directions in the sociology and history of technology", Bijker W., Hughes T., Pinch T., (ed). The MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts. 1987: 281-303.
"Ultrasound in Medicine - A review". Kenneth Erikson, Francis Fry and Joie Jones, IEEE Transactions on Sonics and Ultrasonics, vol. SU-21 no. 3, July 1974.
"Historical Review - The history of Echocardiography" by Inge Edler and Kjell Lindstrom, Ultrasound in Med. & Biol., Vol. 30, No. 12, pp. 1565 - 1644, 2004.
"Diagnostic Ultrasound: Historical Perspective" by Dr. Joseph Holmes. Diagnostic Ultrasound, D.L. King (ed). Mosby 1974.
"The History of Ultrasound in Gynecology 1950 - 1980" by Professor Salvator Levi : Ultrasound in Medicine and Biology, vol 23 pp481-552, 1997
"Assessing the Risks for Modern Diagnostic Ultrasound Imaging". William D. O¡¦Brien, Jr.
"Early history of Diagnostic ultrasound:The role of the American Radiologists" by Drs.Goldberg, Gramiak and Freimanis : American Journal of Roentgenology, vol 160, pp 189-194, 1993
"Diagnostic Ultrasound during the early years of A.I.U.M." by Dr. Joseph Homles : Journal of Clinical Ultrasound, vol 8, pp 299-308, 1980.
"A History of AIUM" by Dr. Joseph Holmes, 1980.
"An historical review of Ultrasonic Investigations at the National Acoustic Laboratories" by Dr. George Kossoff : Journal of Clinical Ultrasound, vol 3, pp 39-44, 1975.
"Ultrasound in Biomedicine - Cumulative Bibliography of the World Literature to 1978" by Drs. Denis White, Geraldine Clark, Joan Carson and Elizabeth White. Pergamon Press 1982.
"Radiology - An illustrated History" by Professor Ronald L. Eisenberg. Mosby Year Book 1992.
"Ultrasonic diagnosis in Gynecology and Obstetrics" by S Mizuno. Vol 19, no.2, Nippon Sanka Fujinka Gakkai Zasshi pp.171-175, 1967. (in Japanese).
"The Dawn of Diagnostic Ultrasound" by Toshio Wagai, 1987. (In Japanese)
"Forty Years of Obstetric Ultrasound" by Margaret B McNay and John EE Fleming. Ultrasound in Medicine and Biology 25:3-56, 1999.
"Looking at the Unborn: Historical Aspects of Obstetric Ultrasound" - Witness seminar transcript. Wellcome Witness to Twentieth Centurty Medicine. E M Tansey, D A Christie, eds. January 2000.
"Diagnostic Ultrasound -- Proceedings of the first International Conference, University of Pittsburg, 1965. Edited by CC Grossman, JH Holmes, C Joyner and EW Purnell. Plenum Press, New York. 1066.
- Every effort has been made to ensure accuracy in dates, persons and events.
- It is not possible to include all the names who have contributed significantly to the advancement of Obstetrical and Gynecological sonography,
some who may have been less well-known than the others and some who may not have published so extensively in the English language.
Apologies are extended to those whose contribution has not been fully credited in this article.
All original contents Copyrighted 1998-2020 Joseph SK Woo MBBS, FRCOG. All Rights Reserved.
This website is listed in the Humbul Humanities Hub, Resource Discovery Network, University of Oxford, the Wellcome Library for the History of Medicine and Science Links website of the United States National Science Teachers Association.
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