History of echocardiography and its future applications in medicine

This review concisely presents the chronology of events that shaped the development of echocardiography. The concept of "seeing" structures using "sound" dates back to the 1920s, when ultrasound produced by piezoelectric crystals was used to detect flaws in metals. In the early 1950s, Hertz and Edler described the use of ultrasound for assessing mitral-valve disease. Subsequently, Harvey Feigenbaum in the 1960s standardized the clinical use of M-mode echocardiography for quantitative assessment of left-ventricular dimensions. The advent of 2-dimensional echocardiography (1970s), pulsed Doppler (1970s), and color Doppler (1980s) introduced new methods for routine assessment of cardiac anatomy and hemodynamics at bedside. Flexible scopes and superior transducers further paved the way to the application of transesophageal echocardiography. Tissue Doppler and contrast echocardiography recently have emerged as important tools for evaluation of regional myocardial function and blood flow. Miniaturization and the ability to pack thousands of crystals in an electronic array have transformed the application of 3-dimensional echocardiography into a bedside tomographic tool. At the current pace of development, echocardiography will be able to provide complete assessment of the heart in terms of its anatomy, coronary flow, and physiology. Training people and making it available at every bedside may be the only remaining challenges.