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Ultrasound History

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It first started as a tub full of water, and now Ultrasounds are machines smaller in size, easily portable, and even used in ambulances. The most widely known use of Ultrasounds is for pregnant women, as a way of monitoring the fetus. These machines are also used for imaging the inside of a person's’ body, and acts as a guide while doctors perform surgery. Doctors are now able to assist a patient better, make a diagnosis quicker and know if further medical attention is required. Time was once deadly in the medical field, once upon a time doctors were not able to know for sure if a patient had problems internally, and once the problem became known, it was sometimes too late to save a life. Over time, this piece of technology has changed for …show more content…

It consisted of a semicircular tub filled with water, and required the body part being observed to be submerged, which was uncomfortable. In “A Short History of Sonography in Obstetrics and Gynaecology,” Stuart Campbell, a former professor at the University of London- a medical school- states, “it seems unlikely that ultrasound diagnosis would have made the breakthrough into becoming the most widespread imaging modality in clinical use was it not for the development of the compound contact scanner by Donald and Brown in the late 1950’s.” With the help of an engineer called Tom Brown, Ian Donald was able to create the first 2D ultrasound scanning machine, which he called the Diasonograph. With this piece of equipment-which was 8ft tall and occupied about one-third of the room- they were able to get images of the fetus and gynaecological tumors. The images, which were full of static, were created by rocking the transducer- a device that receives information and converted it into an electrical signal- slowly over the patient's abdomen. According to Campbell “the starting gun had been fired and the ultrasound race had begun.” A large number of static scanning machines were made in the years that followed, but none of their image resolution came close to that of the Diasonograph, which was a huge step forward for the medical …show more content…

In “Placenta Previa,” Ronan Bakker an Obstetrician and Gynecologist defines this as,“an obstetric complication that classically presents as painless vaginal bleeding in the third trimester secondary to an abnormal placentation near or covering the internal cervical os”. Historically there has been two types; complete previa which covers the whole cervix, and marginal previa that only covers part of the cervix. Since there was no way to know if it was present in some women, they would often bleed to death. Through the use of the Diasonograph in 1968, Donald was able to find the accurate location of the placenta, giving doctors an opportunity to diagnose it sooner, thus saving the lives of many women and children. By the mid 70’s the machines became less expensive, smaller and easier to move. Getting an ultrasound of a fetus was once time consuming; if the fetus moved they would have to start the whole process over, but now movements of the fetus could be followed. Since the machines were becoming more available, departments owned more instead of one big static scanner, giving the staff an opportunity to

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