Studies on the foundation and development of diagnostic ultrasound

In recent years, various types of diagnostic imaging methods, such as CT, MRI, PET and Ultrasound, have been developed rapidly and become indispensable as clinical diagnostic tools. Among these imaging modalities, CT, MRI and PET all apply electromagnetic waves like radiation rays. In contrast, an u...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Proceedings of the Japan Academy, Series B Series B, 2007/08/30, Vol.83(8), pp.256-265
Main Author: WAGAI, Toshio
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
diagnostic ultrasound
MRI
PET
Ultrasono-tomography
ultrasound
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:In recent years, various types of diagnostic imaging methods, such as CT, MRI, PET and Ultrasound, have been developed rapidly and become indispensable as clinical diagnostic tools. Among these imaging modalities, CT, MRI and PET all apply electromagnetic waves like radiation rays. In contrast, an ultrasound imaging method uses a completely different mechanical pressure wave: “sound”. Ultrasound has various features, including inaudible sound at very high frequencies, which allows its use in medical diagnoses. That is, ultrasound techniques can be applied in transmission, reflection and Doppler methods. Moreover, the sharp directivity of an ultrasound beam can also improve image resolution. Another big advantage of diagnostic ultrasound is that it does not harm the human body or cause any pain to patients. Given these various advantages, diagnostic ultrasound has recently been widely used in diagnosing cancer and cardiovascular disease and scanning fetuses (Fig. 1) as well as routine clinical examinations in hospitals. In this paper, I outline my almost 50-year history of diagnostic ultrasound research, particularly that performed at the early stage from 1950-56. (Communicated by Tamio YAMAKAWA, M.J.A.)
ISSN:0386-2208
1349-2896
DOI:10.2183/pjab.83.256