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| HISTORY OF MEDICINE |
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| Year : 2002 | Volume
: 3
| Issue : 1 | Page : 7 |
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The road from m-mode to three-dimensional echocardiography
Rachel Hajar
Director, Non-Invasive Cardiac Laboratory, Cardiology & Cardiovascular Surgery Department, Hamad Medical Corporation, Doha, Qatar
| Date of Web Publication | 22-Jun-2010 |
Correspondence Address:
Rachel Hajar
Director, Non-Invasive Cardiac Laboratory, Cardiology & Cardiovascular Surgery Department, Hamad Medical Corporation, Doha
Qatar
 Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None  | Check |
How to cite this article:
Hajar R. The road from m-mode to three-dimensional echocardiography. Heart Views 2002;3:7 |
In a watery world where sight is often of little use, dolphins explore their environment and search out their prey through echolocation. Echolocation is a method of sensory perception by which certain animals (such as bats, porpoises, and some whales) orient themselves to their surroundings, detect obstacles, communicate with others, and find food. In echolocation, an animal emits a series of short, high-pitched sounds - pulses of ultrasonic sounds that are inaudible to humans. High frequency sounds provide better resolution of targets than low frequency sounds. These sounds travel out away from the animal and then bounce off objects and surfaces in the animal's path creating an echo. The echo returns to the animal, giving it a sense about what is in its path:
the object's size, shape, direction, distance, and motion. During the Second World War, remote sensing tools such as radar and sonar were developed to "illuminate" and scan unseen terrain. Since radar uses electromagnetic energy and sonar acoustic energy, both systems can operate day and night. Energy returned from the terrain is detected by the system and recorded as imagery. Radar operates at much higher frequencies than does sonar and is used to image areas above sea level; the lower frequency sonar signal is transmitted through water and is used to image the seafloor.
Radar and sonar became the "eyes and ears" of warfare. It can be said that the more sophisticated remote "sense organ" developed by Britain during World War II contributed to the Allied Forces winning the war. The discovery that ultrasound can travel through tissues paved the way for research into its potential as a diagnostic tool in medicine. Ultrasound has enabled physicians to probe the secrets of the human body painlessly.
It has been used to see the living heart over the past 50 years.
Today, together with the tremendous advances in microprocessor technology, novel methods of using ultrasound to evaluate cardiac diseases continue to evolve.
Ultrasound has truly revolutionized the way we practice medicine.
The evolution of ultrasound from a crude medical tool to a highly sophisticated non-invasive instrument is summarized in [Table 1],[Table 2],[Table 3].
Multiplane TEE paved the way for state-of-the-art dynamic Three-Dimensional Echocardiography[Table 4],[Table 5],[Table 6],[Table 7],[Figure 1],[Figure 2],[Figure 3],[Figure 4] [9]
 Sound Wave Portraits of the heart | |  |
[Additional file 1]
| References | | |
| 1. | Wells PNT. History and development. In: Roelandt JRTC, Sutherland GR, Iliceto S, Linker DT, eds. Cardiac Ultrasound. London: Churchill Livingstone, Longman Group UK Limited, 1993:3-7.  |
| 2. | About_com http-www_ob-ultrasound_net-history.htm |
| 3. | Strutt JW (Third Baron Rayleigh) 1877 vol 1; 1878 vol 2.The theory of sound. MacMillan, London. |
| 4. | Feigenbaum H. Echocardiography. Philadelphia:Lea & Febige r, 1976: 1-4. |
| 5. | Gramiak R, PM Shah, DH Kramer. Ultrasoundcardiography:contrast studies in anatomy and function. Radiology. 1969;92:929 |
| 6. | |
| 7. | Hatle L, Angelsen B. Doppler ultrasound in cardiology.Philadelphia:1985:1-7. |
| 8. | Garcia-Fernandez MA, Zamorano J, Azevedo J. Doppler Tissue Imaging Echocardiography. Spain: McGraw-Hill,1998:1-3. |
| 9. | Roelandt JRTC, History and development. In:Roelandt JRTC, Pandian NG, eds. Multiplane TransesophagealEchocardiography. New York:Churchill Livingstone, 1996:1-10. |
[Figure 1], [Figure 2], [Figure 3], [Figure 4]
[Table 1], [Table 2], [Table 3], [Table 4], [Table 5], [Table 6], [Table 7]
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