As most people know by now, the word ‘ultrasound’ is associated with rubbing a gel-laden massage head over a pregnant woman’s midsection in order to catch a glimpse of the new life growing within. Essentially, this process works by bouncing high frequency sound waves off of the baby using a process called the Doppler effect – where a transducer pulses and receives sound waves at different intervals that are digitised and displayed on a screen as an image. Ultrasound is based on sonar, something that was first discovered by Jean-Daniel Colladon of Sweden in 1826! Few can deny that ultrasound is a vital component in the medical world, so let’s have a look at this remarkable invention’s history…
Ultrasound and Metal Flaw Detection
The discovery of piezo-electricity by the Curie brothers in 1880, and the mathematical deduction of the reciprocal behaviour of achieving a mechanical stress in response to voltage difference by Gabriel Lippman in 1881, was what set sonar technology in motion. This made the generation and reception of ‘ultrasound’ that are in the frequency range of millions of cycles per second (megahertz) possible, which lead to the employment of echo sounding devices.
The invention of the hydrophone by French physicist Paul Langevin around the turn of the 20th century saw high frequency ultrasonic echo-sounding devices used to detect German U-boats and submarines during World War I. Ultrasound was further adapted in 1928 by Soviet scientist Sergei Sokolov, who theorised that an ultrasound transmission technique could be used to detect metal flaws on hulls of large ships and armour plating on battle tanks.
This flaw detection application of ultrasound technology was only possible in 1941 when Floyd Firestone and Donald Sproule produced their patented supersonic reflectoscope described as a ‘Flaw Detection Device and Measuring Instrument’. Because of World War II taking place at the time, Firestone’s invention was not formally published until 1945.
Early Medical Ultrasound Applications
In the medical world, ultrasound was first used therapeutically rather than diagnostically. High intensity ultrasound was first used as a neuro-surgical tool by William Fry and Russell Meyers who performed craniotomies and destroyed parts of the basal ganglia with high-intensity ultrasound in patients suffering from Parkinsonism.
By 1953, ultrasound was being used extensively in physical and rehabilitation medicine. Rheumatic arthritis was treated with ultrasound by Jerome Gersten, and researchers such as Peter Wells, Douglas Gordon, and Mischele Arslan used ultrasound energy in the treatment of Meniere’s disease. Around this time ultrasound was being used to treat anything from eczema to elephanititis, but its therapeutic application was facing a large pool of sceptics – owing to its ability to damage tissue.
This growing number of concerned professionals lead to the curtailing of ultrasound’s therapeutic application, moving it into the sphere of medical diagnostics which is where it found its niche.
Ultrasound Technology and Medical Diagnosis
Karl Theo Dussik, along with his brother Friederich, are generally regarded as the first physicists to use ultrasound technology in medical diagnosis – sending sound waves between two transducers attached to the patient’s temples in an attempt to locate brain tumours. Their procedure known as hyperphonography first made an appearance in 1942 and further results were presented in 1947.
Tissue diagnosis was pioneered by John Julian Wild in 1950 by using ultrasound to determine the thickness of intestinal material. By 1952 Wild and his understudy, John Reid, had built a linear hand-held instrument able to visualise tumours by sweeping the device side to side through breast lumps.
Diagnosis of the foetus and placenta was first performed by D. Callagan in 1964, working for the United States Naval Medical Research Institute in Maryland. In the following year, a gynaecologist known as Wayne Johnson reported 100% accuracy in the detection of foetal life in 25 patients who were 12 weeks pregnant.
Small improvements were made to Wild and Reid’s ultrasound system through the 1970’s and 1980’s – until the second half of the 1990’s when tissue harmonic imaging improved the appearance of ultrasound scans considerably. Essentially, harmonic imaging uses lower frequency sound waves to improve penetration of tissue – processing only the higher frequency echoes produced by the body.
Medical Ultrasound Solutions in South Africa
As South Africa’s sole distributor of Fluke Biomedical equipment, and a distributor of Philips Medical Systems in KwaZulu-Natal, Glenmed are dedicated to the improvement of medical services across Southern Africa – offering in-service training and 24-hour support to our clients. Speak to Glenmed about world-class ultrasound solutions to suit your needs.