1953

Utilizing the Siemens Ultrasound Reflectoscope, Edler & Hertz (Holland) launch echocardiography (ultrasound cardiography [UCG]) by applying ultrasound to heart in vivo and getting real-time images of cardiac structures via M (motion) mode ultrasound (Kevles, 241-42; Singh & Goyal, 433). “During the course of subsequent examinations, Edler observed that the typical UCG finding from the anterior wall of the left atrium of patients with mitral stenosis was different from that recorded in patients with mitral regurgitation. . . . The original goals that had spurred the development of this technique had been met; in addition to establishing a diagnostic distinction between stenosis and regurgitation, echocardiography made it possible to determine the severity of the stenosis. A correlation had been found between the speed of diastolic downstroke and the size of the mitral ostium” (Singh & Goyal, 434). Note: M-mode echocardiogram was not a “picture” of heart but a diagram that showed how the position of heart structures changed during the course of the cardiac cycle. It was in the early 1970s, that Reggie Eggleston, using a Sunbeam electronic toothbrush, produce first commercially successful 2-dimensional echocardiogram, which enabled visualization of actual images of the heart (436).