Ultrasound imaging in urogynaecology

Abstract

The history of ultrasound dates back to 1794 when Lazzaro Spallanzani, an Italian biologist demonstrated that the ability of bats to navigate accurately through the dark was due to echo reflection from high frequency inaudible sound. In 1826, Jean-Daniel Colladon, a Swiss physicist, successfully determined the speed of sound in the waters of Lake Geneva, but the real breakthrough in the evolution of high frequency echo sounding techniques came when the piezo-electric effect in certain crystals was discovered by Pierre and Jacques Curie in Paris in 1880. Two researchers are noted in the history of ultrasound and medical imaging. They are: Doctor Karl Theodore Dussik of Austria, who published the first paper on medical ultrasonics in 1942 based on his research on transmission ultrasound investigation of the brain; and Professor Ian Donald of Scotland, who developed practical technology and applications for ultrasound in the 1950s.