Timeline History of Imaging Technology Growth in Ultrasound
Technology Growth in Imaging
1949 – This year marked the very first report on issues diagnostic involving the use of ultrasound in the United States. It was detailed at a 30 page report of Dr. George Ludwig submitted to the Naval Medical Research Institute. At first the report was deemed confidential as ordered by the navy making the report not to be published in the any medical journals. Dr. Ludwig used a screen called oscilloscope to record the sound wave using a pulse repetition at a rate of 60 times in one second. (Woo, Joseph M.D. N.D.).
1950 – A Scottish doctor named Ian Donald also used ultrasound method in medical diagnostics using is background in obstetrics. He also developed the practical application of the ultrasonic sound technology. This also paved way for perfecting the use of Echocardiography or ECG (Library.thinkquest.org N.D.).
1951 – This is the year when a total of 24 physicians attended the American Congress of Physical Medicine held in Denver, Colorado. All of them found interest in the possibilities of using ultrasound as an effective medical tool in terms of detection and diagnostics.
1955 – The very first report on ultrasound was presented by John Reid, PhD and Dr. John Julian Wild, PhD, M.D. in a meeting held in Detroit, Michigan. The paper is to substantiate the use of the technology for diagnostics purposes; the paper is entitled Echographic Tissue Diagnostics (Aium.org N.D.).
1960 – The sonar principles were then applied to medical diagnostics that requires imaging. The ultrasonic waves produced from a quartz crystal were being reflected at several interfaces between the tissues. The sound echo is being received by the machine and was interpreted using computers and reconstructing software.
1964 – This is the year when Dr. Robert Rushmer detected cardiac pulsation from a fetus, according to his report published in the same year using continuous wave Doppler.
1975 – Ultrasound reached dramatic improvements in its own technology, velocity waveforms are being developed including image flow that was encoded in superimposed and color through gray scale 2-D and M-mode. This new technology added value to imaging in detecting cardiac problems (Ng, Khai Chung May12, 2011).
1983 – All the existing technologies were shook by a new standard in ultrasound development because of the use of 128 channel wide aperture driven by Computed Sonography Platform. This machine was introduced by Acuson Corporation and the ultrasound technology was unmatched in clarity and resolution during that time (Woo, Joseph M.D. N.D.).
1994 – The Medical Ultrasound Imaging technology greatly evolved with the use of integrated circuits which has the capacity to process signals from real-time and phased-arrays images simultaneously. This is also marked the development towards three dimensional 3-D ultrasound imaging.
1996 – With the help of Shiro Kozuma and Takashi Okai from ALOKA, the initial experience with rea processed with 3-D was published by Kazunori Baba in Lancet. The report indicates that the simple use of algorithm instead of the usual 3-D technology can actually deliver real-time image through acoustic impedance threshold in identifying fetal surface.
Through the years, the science of imaging in the field of medical advancement had greatly evolved. From the last five six decades it has changed from a single sound device that can penetrate through body tissues to a three dimensional real time ultrasound technology that give almost alive pictures within the human body, it is no doubt that the science of imaging will go a long way. Given that the technology evolved to a 3D picture technology to date, we can assume that in the next 10 years, this technology will change to a high definition imaging technology that can show life-like pictures inside the human body. Although ultrasound can only show the outlines of body tissues, in the next couple of decades it will soon give us more detailed pictures through the help of developed computer processors and devices. Holographic image projections will also be possible including high definition display with predicting technology that will show developmental stage predictions based on the captured images.
References
Woo, Joseph M.D. (N.D.) History of Ultrasound in Obstetrics and Gynecology. Web. Retrieved on December 12, 2011 from http://www.ob-ultrasound.net/ludwig.html
Library.thinkquest.org. (N.D.). Imaging Ultrasound History Timeline Web. Retrieved on December 12, 2011 from http://library.thinkquest.org/05aug/01883/ultrasound2.htm
Aium.org. (N.D.). History Timeline. Web. Retrieved on December 12, 2011 from http://www.aium.org/aboutaium/history/timeline.aspx
Ng, Khai Chung. (May12, 2011) History of Color Doppler Ultrasound. Web. Retrieved on December 12, 2011 from https://wiki.engr.illinois.edu/display/BIOE414/History+of+Color+Doppler+Ultrasound
Woo, Joseph M.D. (N.D.). A short History of the development of Ultrasound in Obstetrics and Gynecology Web. Retrieved on December 12, 2011 from http://www.obultrasound.net/history3.html
