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The report deals with 2 cases of heart tumors in which a commercial ultrasonic diagnostic equipment was used for tomography. In both cases we were successful in demonstrating the lesions. The visualization of subtle diagnostic details is ruled out by the rhythmical movements of the heart which cause blurring and superposition of signals.

Summary The application of diagnostic ultrasound to heart disease is a new field in medical and surgical practice and investigation. In this paper an ultrasonic scanning method of the inside of the heart, using intravenous ultrasonic probes, is described in principle and procedure, ultrasonic tomograms, by ppi display, are also presented. The C-scan with the intracardiac method produces a flat image of the interatrial septum and this method can produce a series of horizontal tomograms of the heart structure. In animal experiments, such structures as the right and left atrial walls, interatrial septums and right ventricles and aortas could be identified, suggesting the value of the method of diagnosis in clinical practice. Some of the clinical cases revealed that ultrasonic cardiac tomography with the ultrasonic intravenous probe could be a unique approach to patho-physiology and diagnosis of disorders of the heart. To nullify the effect of the heart movement a modified equipment has been introduced in which a servo-mechanism, to control the scanner, in synchronism with an ecg, is involved. The result is satisfactory.

Ultrasonic acoustic waves have been used in recent years to delineate the structure of biological tissues. The principles are similar to those of marine sonar equipment for ocean depth determination and the location of submarines (3, 17, 18). In 1950 French and his co-workers (6, 7) attempted to delineate cerebral structures by ultrasound technics. Wild and Reid in 1952 then devised methods for differentiating mass lesions in other parts of the body (17, 18), which required immersion of the body part in a liquid. Modifications of this immersion technic have subsequently been employed by others (4, 10). The pulse echo method to locate the position of the midline structures of the brain in living patients was described by Leksell (14) in 1956, and later by others (2, 5, 8, 12, 15, 16). Kikuchi and Tanaka employing the method first described by French, Wild, and Neil in 1951, went a step further and tried to identify the structures observed with an ultrasonic pulse (13). This attempt was made on the living h...

Much ultrasonic diagnosis has the advantage that it requires no surgery, but if this advantage is forgone, scope for diagnosis can be extended. The authors describe examination of the liver by a p.p.i. display with a probe placed in the inferior vena cava via the femoral vein and a method of detecting and measuring an atrial septal defect (a.s.d.) with a probe inserted in the right atrium through the external jugular vein or the femoral vein. In detecting a.s.d. a C-scan technique is usually used. No harmful effects have been observed in either examination. This article is based on a paper which was presented at the 5th Conference on Medical Electronics at Liege in July, 1963

One of the necessary features of the methods of examining the living body is that the information can be obtained without giving any burden to the body. Ultrasonic method seems to meet such a requirement and enables one to obtain information about the condition of the soft tissue within the body. The methods of ultrasonic test may be divided as follows: (1) shadow method, (2) impulse reflecting method (A scope, B scope, i. e., ultrasonic tomography, C scope), and (3) ultrasonic Doppler method. As common technical principle of these methods is based upon difference in responses of each tissue to ultrasound (regarding absorption, sonic impedance, etc.). Ultrasonic test has been applied to various kinds of diseases. Present study deals with the application to the heart. Ultrasonic methods enable one to detect the motion of various parts of the heart, especially that of the valves.

Ultrasonic tomography permits the two-dimensional demonstration of the difference in density of the soft tissues, making possible the identification and localization of free fluid in the abdominal cavity. Liquid is seen in the ultrasonic tomogram as an echo-free zone. In deciding whether or not to operate or in planning the type of radiation therapy, the diagnosis or exclusion of ascites is of particular value in those patients where abdominal metastases are considered likely. Very small amounts of ascites can be diagnosed quickly and without stress for the patient, and by using ultrasonic visualization, fluid for cytological examination can be withdrawn safely.

Contact ultrasonic tomography was employed to obtain the size of the spleen in vivo. The scanning was done parallel to the ribs, and the splenotomograms obtained by this method showed three basic patterns of enlargement: a soft, bulging spleen, splenic congestion, or a firm spleen. Of the 96 patients with liver disease studied by this technique, 95% gave evidence of splenic enlargement. Useful information on prognosis may be obtained by observing the changes in the sectional areas of the spleen.

In X-ray radiography there exists a technique, known as tomography, in which a sharp image of one section of the body is obtained by moving the X-ray tube and the photographic plate in opposite directions. Can we not produce a similar, or even better effect with ultrasound?

The review of 1,041 cases of cholelithiasis operated on during the period of 1935 to 1970 has led to the following conclusion. In diagnosis and treatment of cholelithiasis, careful scrutiny of patient’s history and clinical symptoms and combined use of diagnostic procedures such as cholecystography and ultrasonic tomography are important as well as operative intervention without undue delay. Cholecystography has established itself as the most useful tool in diagnosis of cholelithiasis and has been found to be useful in about three quarter of cases. The presence of intestinal gas in right upper quadrant in duodenum and/or in colon on negative cholecystogram points strongly the presence of acute cholecysttitis and necessitates immediate operative intervention. Ultrasonic tomography has been found to have a great value when cholecystography fails i.e., in case of non-visualisation of biliary tract. Increasing use of these diagnostic procedures in recent years led to the early diagnosis and treatment of cholelithiasis and to a considerable decrease in mortality rate to as low as 1.2 per cent.

The ultrasonic appearance of pathological conditions in the male breast is similar to that encountered in the female breast. With grey scale echography, characteristic features associated with a particular condition can be recognized and an estimation made of the extent of the pathological involvement.

The use of ultrasound in medical diagnosis has been known and experimented with for some 20 years. It is only in the last few years that its application has become fairly widespread, primarily because of the high correlation factors obtained by investigators in the neurological field in the Scandinavian countries using stykographic (A‐scan) techniques. Now, more‐sophisticated methods, such as ultrasonic tomography, are beginning to appear in the neurological area. While some equipment is available that is capable of localizing many intracranial masses, work remains to be done in the interpretation of the resulting tomograms. Because physicians, on the one hand, are generally unfamiliar with the properties of ultrasonic waves and their interaction with matter and physicists, on the other hand, are not well‐acquainted with human anatomy, physiology, and pathology, close cooperation is needed between the disciplines of acoustics and medicine to ensure successful advancement of medical ultrasonography. A disc...