| Popis: |
n 2005, the American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine (AIUM) will celebrate its 50th anniversary. The first 50 years of the AIUM are closely intertwined with the evolution of ultrasound and with the pioneers and developments responsible for propelling ultrasound into its position as one of the leading imaging modalities in North America and around the world. I am delighted that Beryl R. Benacerraf, MD, editor-in-chief of our prestigious Journal of Ultrasound in Medicine, asked me to write this introductory article in honor of the AIUM’s first 5 decades. The AIUM has a number of activities and items planned for these next 2 years. First and foremost will be a series of articles on the history of ultrasound, which will be published in our journal from this June until our June 2005 annual convention in Orlando, Florida. These articles will highlight the history of ultrasound from its earliest days to the present. The articles will be written by key ultrasound pioneers and preeminent scholars of the AIUM and will describe the remarkable progress and changes that have taken place in ultrasound over these 5 decades. Among the topics expected to be addressed are abdominal, breast, cardiology, contrast-enhanced, emergency, intraoperative, musculoskeletal, obstetric/gynecologic, ophthalmologic, pediatric, retroperitoneal, and vascular ultrasound, as well as changes in AIUM administration/governance, bioeffects, instrumentation, medicolegal issues, and neurosonology. Today, the AIUM is known and respected around the world as a unique, dynamic, multidisciplinary organization, blending clinical and basic science in the pursuit of excellence in ultrasound. It is a society of more than 8200 members and represents a true cross section of ultrasound professions, including physicians (sonologists) from almost all diagnostic fields, sonographers, basic scientists, engineers, and ultrasound industry representatives. It is difficult to believe that only a little more than half a century ago, few people had heard of ultrasound, and even fewer could describe how it could be used in medicine. Today, virtually everyone knows about diagnostic ultrasound, and many have had the firsthand experience of undergoing an ultrasound examination. In fact, by some estimation, more than 80 million ultrasound examinations are now performed annually in the United States. In the 1940s and 1950s, when ultrasound was just emerging as a diagnostic technique, display technology was largely limited to Aand M-mode tracings and crude bistable static B-mode images. At that time, the only nonresearch clinical application for ultrasound was for therapy rather than diagnosis. High-power, low-frequency ultrasound was already widely used to provide therapeutic heating of deep tissues. |
Plný text