History of US
From: Daniel A Merton (Daniel.A.Merton@mail.tju.edu)
Mon Jan 29 09:12:22 2001
Hi Terry, et al.
Re; the OB/GYN history forum- have you ever seen the Sept. 10, 1965 issue of
Life magazine? I found a copy in a used book store and have it (original
cover price: 35 cents, present cost: $8). It has on the cover a woman
receiving an OB US scan by a large water-bath type device with the caption:
"Image of baby's head in womb is projected onto screen by ultrasonic waves
transmitted through water-filled bag".
There are a few other photos of early US equipment but the article (as
indicated by the cover wording) had more to do with "Profound and
Astonishing Biological Revolution - CONTROL OF LIFE - audacious experiments
promise decades of added life, superbabies with improved minds and bodies,
and even a kind of immortality" it was the first of a 4 part series.
There are also reports (w/ pics) of doing fetal surgery (on monkeys- but it
looks very much like a human fetus), and a technique that "...involves the
use of a dye which makes parts of the fetus visible on x-rays.", and a photo
taken at Albert Einstein MC in Phila. of a pregnant woman: "heat from a
woman's body is reflected by mirror into device that converts it to a
picture..." (ie; thermography) which was used to localize the placenta. The
US photos were from Hahnemann Medical Coll. Phila. The text mentions:
"Though all three of these approaches are still in varouis stages of
research, they are already helping to cure ills and save lives." (how true)
There were other interesting articles w/ insights into what was then new or
would later become a reality in human medicine like IUD's and IVF.
In case you are wondering: no mention of any specific radiologists or OB/GYN
Dr.s
DAM, Phila., PA
> From: Terry J DuBose <tjdubose@juno.com>
> Reply-To: soundadvice@listbox.com
> Date: Sat, 27 Jan 2001 21:09:34 -0600
> To: ultrasound-history@forum.obgyn.net, soundadvice@listbox.com,
> GersonSL@aol.com, Sonar1951@aol.com
> Cc: soundadvice@listbox.com
> Subject: Re: Smithsonian 1988
>
> Folks, I am going to make another appeal that you CC these historical
> comments to the new History of Ultrasound Forum, no matter how
> insignificant you may think they are as to the history of ultrasound.
>
> Please CC any questions and recollections of early sonography to:
> ultrasound-history@mail.medispecialty.com
>
> The above address must be the first one listed in either the CC or TO
> space... as a method to screen out SPAM to the Forum.
>
> You can see the Forum at URL: http://forums.obgyn.net/ultrasound-history/
>
> This is a collaborative effort by the SDMS and OBGYN.net to archive the
> recollections of those involved in the early days of Sonography. Your
> help will be appreciated, and if these comments do not go into an
> archived forum, then they will just go into cyber-dust. Please help us
> preserve this history... your history!
>
> Now as to Kevin's question: "... what does your husband do or what did
> he do that has to do with US." Don Baker was an engineer at the
> University of Washington in Seattle and helped to develop the first
> medical Doppler units... I think he was probably the prime mover and
> shaker on that invention. It is a long story, and I do not know all the
> details, but he eventually was one of three people (Don the engineer
> behind it, a financier, and a business person) as I understand it. They
> put ATL together as the first commercial medical duplex Doppler
> Ultrasound unit. Hopefully, we will be able to get Joan and Don to
> document their individual stories... and their story as man and wife...
> on the History Forum.
>
> Don and Joan are two of the most important individuals to the development
> of the profession of Ultrasound in the United States, and perhaps world
> wide. There are many who have contributed, but all have not been
> recognized for their bit. That is what this new History of Ultrasound
> Forum is all about. Please help us by archiving your recollections of
> how the early days of sonography came about...
>
> Thanks Terry J DuBose, M.S., RDMS
> Little Rock, Arkansas, USA
>
>>> On Sat, 27 Jan 2001 20:01:12 EST Sonar1951@aol.com writes:
>> Joan-
>> I may be the only one that doesn't know, but what does your
> husband do or what did he do that has to do with US. I am very curious,
> you make it sound like he was in forefront of US technology.
>>
>> Kevin J. Brennan RT RDMS RDCS
>> CT Surgical Group / Urology Div.
>> Hartford, CT.
>
> llen, are you thinking of the ADR scanner? This was a separate company
> that
> later was bought by ATL.
>
> Aha, Joan!! It never struck me why you are so familiar with ATL history!
> Many thanks to your husband for these powerful developments. I remember
> reading the galley proofs of Dr. Liv Hatle and Bjorn Angelsen's first
> book on the application of CW and PW to cardiology in 1980-81. When I
> finished, my thought was that if 1/4 of what they said really worked, it
> would be spectacular. Of course, much more of it worked and the rest is
> history.
>
> The change that made that book so important was that they used the
> formula that enabled us to estimate pressure gradients from the velocity
> or frequency shift information. That modification of the Bernoulli
> equation was performed by Dr. Jarle Holen, a remarkable (and
> extraordinarily humble) man with a background in mechanical engineering
> and fluid dynamics before he went to medical school. The story of how he
> came to that is quite interesting itself, and, as with many great
> developments somewhat accidental as he used to tell the story.
>
> Thanks, Kevin! I think you are right and that Bronson was part of the
> name of that other scanner.
>
> Gerson S. Lichtenberg, RDCS, RDMS
> Cardiology Department
> Oak Park Hospital
> Oak Park, Illinois
>
