Table 1.
Cardiac and cardiovascular ultrasound timeline
| Year | Scientific contribution |
|---|---|
| 1727 | James Bradley reported the aberration of light from stars, and measured its speed. 1 |
| 1738 | Daniel Bernoulli related the speed of a fluid to a local decrease in pressure or potential energy. 2 |
| 1757 | Leonhard Euler (who had studied with Bernoulli’s father) published general principles of fluid dynamics,3 followed in 1775 by his publication on flow in blood that is still applicable to non-invasive haemodynamic assessments. 4 |
| 1842 | Christian Doppler gave paper ‘On the coloured light of the double stars and certain other heavenly bodies’5 to the Royal Bohemian Society of Sciences, Prague, 25th May (which was a theoretical development of the earlier paper by James Bradley). |
| 1845 | Christophorus Hendrik Diederik Buijs Ballot, observed the frequency shift of sound waves. 6 |
| 1880 | Jacques and Pierre Curie discovered the piezoelectric effect. 7 |
| 1916 | Paul Langevin (who had been a doctoral student of Pierre Curie) developed SONAR during the First World War; he filed patents with Constantin Chilowsky in 1916 in France8 and 1917 in the USA9 (stating that ‘The relative motion of the obstacle and the observation post may be determined by applying Doppler’s method..’). |
| 1929 | Sokolov in Russia proposed using ultrasound to test castings.10 He filed a US patent application for his ultrasonic flaw detector (as Sergey Sokoloff) in 1937. 11 |
| 1940 | Floyd Firestone constructed an ultrasonic reflectoscope for industrial use.12 He applied for a patent during the Second World War, and published his method afterwards in 1946. 13 |
| 1942 | Karl Theo Dussik developed what he called ‘hyperphonography’, using transmitted US to examine the brain,14,15 he considered but did not pursue ultrasound reflection. |
| 1949 | Wolf-Dieter Keidel scanned the heart with transmitted ultrasound, to estimate its volume (after trying but rejecting the pulse-reflection method).16,17 |
| 1952 | John Wild and John Reid applied echo-ranging to determine the structure of biological soft tissues (including breast).18–20 Figures include ‘A-mode’ demonstration. (John Wild started his research after locating to the USA in 1946). |
| 1952 | Douglass Howry & Roderic Bliss produced compound scans of human anatomy, equivalent cumulatively to 2D cross-sections (‘Somascope’),21,22 first results obtained in 1950. |
| 1953 | May: first trial by Hellmuth Hertz and Inge Edler on themselves of ultrasound using machine from Kockum shipyard; first A-mode scan (reflected ultrasound) of heart. |
| 1953 | 29th October, first M-mode scan by Edler and Hertz. Published 1954.23 |
| 1955 | Ian Donald (who met John Wild in London in the early 1950 s) starts to investigate reflected ultrasound in the abdomen and then in obstetric practice, like Edler and Hertz starting with a borrowed flaw detector; with engineer Tom Brown, develops ‘Diasonograph’ which produced compound obstetric scans. 24 |
| 1956 | Shigeo Satomura, ultrasonic Doppler method to measure cardiac motion (with continuous wave). Initial report in Japanese,25 first publication in English in 1957.26 |
| 1960 | Tomasz Cieszyński, first intravascular scanning and intracardiac echocardiography reported, using a single-element transducer on a catheter (developed from 1956).27 |
| 1961 | Edler’s thesis published as supplement to Acta Medica Scandinavica.28 |
| 1962 | Ryozo Omoto obtained 2D intravascular images with a slowly rotating, single-element transducer mounted at a catheter tip.29,30 First publication in English in 1967.31,32 |
| 1963 | First dedicated cardiac ultrasound scanner built by John (Jack) Reid, working with cardiologist Claude Joyner.33 |
| 1963 | Olofsson develops an optical mirror system for 2D scanning of the heart,34 working with Hertz.35 Further development reported by Arne Åsberg (1967).36 |
| 1964 | ‘Ultrasono-cardio-tomography’ reported from Sendai, Japan, for 2D imaging using mechanical sector scanning.37–39 |
| 1967 | Francis McLeod, directional Doppler system.40 |
| 1967 | Jan Somer constructed first electronic phased-array scanner (‘Electroscan’).41,42 |
| 1968 | Raymond Gramiak and Pravin Shah, first report of (M-mode) contrast echocardiography.43 |
| 1968 | Daniel Kalmanson, directional flow measurement by continuous wave Doppler.44 |
| 1969 | Range-gated (pulsed) Doppler ultrasound developed by three groups: in 1969 Peter Wells45 (Bristol) and Paul Peronneau46 (Paris); and then Donald Baker47 (1970). |
| 1969 | Transthoracic (continuous wave) recording of aortic flow by Henry Light.48 |
| 1971 | Nicolaas (Klaas) Bom and Charles Lancée, first real-time 2D (linear array) cardiac scans (‘Multiscan’).49,50 |
| 1972 | Bom and colleagues, first catheter-based cylindrical phased-array ultrasonic intravascular/intracardiac transducer.51 |
| 1972 | First textbook on echocardiography (Harvey Feigenbaum).52 |
| 1973 | First clinical reports on 2D echo (using the Multiscan) by Frank Kloster53 and Jos Roelandt,54 with Bom and colleagues. |
| 1973 | James Griffith and Walter Henry, mechanical sector scanner for 2D imaging.55,56 |
| 1974 | Frederick Thurstone and Olaf von Ramm, phased-array scanner,57,58 clinical studies reported by Joe Kisslo.59 |
| 1974 | Frank Barber with John Reid, ultrasonic duplex echo-Doppler scanner.60 |
| 1974 | Prototype for 3D cardiac imaging by combining 2D images acquired in different planes (Dekker et al.).61 |
| 1974 | Louis Teichholz publishes method for calculating ejection fraction from left ventricular echocardiographic dimensions.62 |
| 1974 | Bjørn Angelsen constructed a pulsed Doppler system for recording aortic blood flow.63 |
| 1976 | Lee Frazin, single-element transoesophageal echocardiography.64 |
| 1976 | Jarle Holen, first publication using Doppler ultrasound to estimate pressure gradients in heart valve disease (using a modified Gorlin formula).65 |
| 1976 | Cees Ligtvoet with N Bom and colleagues in Rotterdam, first portable (‘hand-held’) echocardiography system (‘Minivisor’),66 clinical study published in 1978.67 |
| 1977 | Kohzoh Hisanaga, high-speed rotating cross-sectional transoesophageal scanner.68,69 |
| 1977 | Alf Brubakk with Bjørn Angelsen and Liv Hatle proposed a modified Bernoulli equation for Doppler echocardiography to assess the severity of heart valve disease.70 |
| 1978 | Marco Brandestini, multigated Doppler instrument, combining imaging of flow encoded in colour, superimposed initially on M-mode scans and later on 2D images.71–73 |
| 1978 | Griffith and Henry, combined instrument for imaging and Doppler.74 |
| 1978 | Hatle with Angelsen, quantification of mitral stenosis75 (1978) and aortic stenosis76 (1980) by the modified Bernoulli method. |
| 1979 | First report of exercise stress echocardiography using 2-dimensional imaging by Wann et al.,77 further developed by Morganroth,78 and Maurer,79 in 1981. |
| 1981 | Jacques Souquet, Peter Hanrath, transoesophageal phased-array echocardiography.80,81 |
| 1982 | First textbook on Doppler Echocardiography (Bjørn Angelsen and Liv Hatle).82 |
| 1982 | Chihiro Kasai,83 with Koroku Namekawa et al.: first commercial real-time colour flow imaging system, using autocorrelation, from Aloka; initial clinical publication by Ryozo Omoto.84 |
| 1982 | Pulsed Doppler recording of mitral flow proposed by Akira Kitabatake for the assessment of left ventricular diastolic function.85 |
| 1983 | First commercial system with colour flow mapping (Aloka). |
| 1989 | Karl Isaaz, proof of concept for regional myocardial velocity measurement.86 |
| 1991 | Olaf von Ramm, first real-time 3D imaging system (‘Volumetrics’).87 |
| 1992 | Multiplane transoesophageal echocardiography (Hewlett Packard).88 |
| 1992 | Norman McDicken and George Sutherland, development of colour and pulsed tissue Doppler (with Acuson).89 |
| 1998 | Software for imaging of regional myocardial function based on post-processing of colour tissue Doppler, by Lars-Åke Brodin and Bjørn Olstad.90 |
| 1998 | Myocardial strain rate, developed by Andreas Heimdal et al.91 |
| 2004 | Peter Lysyansky et al., first commercial system for speckle tracking of grey-scale images, leading to measurement of global longitudinal strain.92,93 |
| 2008 | Real-time ‘live’ 3D transoesophageal imaging (Lissa Sugeng et al.).94 |
Note: the entries in italics concern general or non-cardiac imaging applications.
The dates refer either to the first date of use, if available, or to the earliest publication. The entries relate mostly to engineering and technical developments, rather than to the first reports of new clinical applications or insights. This timeline does not list all early investigators.