Preface: Difference between revisions

In 1946, a French physiotherapist, Dr. Andre Denier, proposed passing ultrasound into the body and recording the waves on an scilloscope wired to display Lissajous images. He thought that all of the internal organs could be visualized in this fashion. Denier failed in constructing his model. An Austrian neurologist, Dr. K.T. Dussik, in collaboration with his physicist brother, succeeded in applying ultrasound in diagnostics for the first time. His idea was to outline the ventricles of the brain and thereby identify various pathologies. His success was very limited, because most of the waves were either absorbed or reflected by the bone in the cranium. He did suggest using the reflected waves, but apparently gave up this idea after being ridiculed. It was the German W.D. Keidel that first used ultrasound to examine volumes of the heart in 1950. But is was not until 1953 that Inge Edler, 42, and Hellmuth Hertz, 36 used a commercial ultrasonoscope borrowed by Siemens to examine the heart.[[Image:FirstEchoCor.png|thumb| the first echocardiogram made by Inge Edler and Hellmuth Hertz in 1953]] Edler, a cardiologist, described many of the current echos for the first time. [[Image:EdlerHertz.png|thumb|Inge Edler and Hellmuth Hertz flanking the poster on the 1977 symposium on Echocardiography in the University Hospital in Lund.]]