Basic Principles of Diagnostic Ultrasound
For diagnostic purposes ultrasound may be used in pulse-echo, Doppler, holographic, and other modes. The discussion in this chapter is limited to pulse-echo, which is the use of short-pulse, sonar-like techniques to display two-dimensional sections through soft tissues. Although pulse-echo has been used with success in many clinical applications since the middle 1950s, there has. recently been a surge of renewed interest in the modality and a vast increase in the number of applications of the technique. Marked improvements in technology have been responsible for the increase in the usefulness of this modality primarily due to the introduction of display system modifications summarized by the term “gray-scale ultrasonography” which have replaced previous bistable display techniques. Much of this improved technology was evolved by Kossoff and his co-workers (Kossoff, 1974a, 1974b) at the Ultrasonic Institute in Sydney, Australia, who reported the clinical value of the technique in obstetrics and gynecology and in observation of the breast and thyroid. A similar machine was evaluated in England which demonstrated the value of the technique when applied to the investigation of the hepatobiliary tract (Taylor, Carpenter, and McCready, 1973; Taylor and McCready, 1976; Taylor, Carpenter, McCready, and Hill, 1976).
KeywordsAcoustic Impedance Ultra Sound Ultrasound Beam Diagnostic Ultrasound Tissue Attenuation
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