Medical electronics: Ultrasonics in medicine: Strong; getting stronger: Two- and three-dimensional imaging breakthroughs may spark the next generation of ultrasonic imaging systems

Ultrasonic diagnosis of the living human heart, in real time and noninvasively, has been used to display cross sections of the heart just as if it had been cut open with a surgeon's knife. By this technique, congenital heart defects can be revealed in situations where, previously, catheter inspection — with a small but finite probability of mortality from the examination alone — had been the only equivalent diagnostic means.1, 2 In another recent development, an ultrasonic instrument is used to reveal disease in the prostate and bladder with the aid of a plan-position-indicator type of display obtained from a small radar-like ultrasonic probe inserted into the rectum. In this application, the patient experiences no more discomfort than during a barium enema used for lower-tract X-ray diagnosis.3