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First steps in ultrasound breast scanning
Dr. John Wild described the acoustic characteristics of two breast tumors, one benign and one malignant, using a hand-held and hand-made sonography system. Very primitive 15 MHz device was used, producing a series of A-mode sonograms. Reference:
Dempsey, Peter J. "Journal of Ultrasound in Medicine." The History of Breast Ultrasound. N.p., 1 July 2004. Web. 07 Apr. 2013. -
B-mode sonograms of breast tissue
Dr.Wild and Dr.Reid published the results of ultrasound examinations in 21 breast tumors; 9 benign and 12 malignant. The 2-dimentional or B-mode sonograms of breast tissue became available for the first time because of the work of Dr. Wild and his colleague. Reference:
Dempsey, Peter J. "Journal of Ultrasound in Medicine." The History of Breast Ultrasound. N.p., 1 July 2004. Web. 07 Apr. 2013. -
Clinical Application
Based on the study from 1952, Dr.Wild and Dr.Reid reported first clinical application of breast ultrasound. They were accurate in preoperatively classifying 12 of 12 malignant tumors (11 ductal carcinomas and 1 sarcoma) and 9 of 9 benign tumors. In contrast to previous research, this study proved that ultrasound could be used as a screening tool in identifying breast masses. Reference:
Dempsey, Peter J. "Journal of Ultrasound in Medicine." The History of Breast Ultrasound. N.p., 1 July 2004. We -
Further technical advancements
The scanning tecnique was improved further by a group of researchers at the Ultrasonics Institute in Australia headed by George Kossof and Jack Jellins. The patient lay on the bed and a water bath was lowered onto her breasts. The ultrasound transducer, positioned within the bath, was then moved under automated control on a set of rails. Reference:
"A History of Automated Breast Ultrasound." CapeRay Blog. N.p., 31 Aug. 2012. Web. 08 Apr. 2013. -
First breast scanner
In Australia, the first ultrasonic breast scanner was installed at the Royal North Shore Hospital in Sydney. It was a bistable machine capable of imaging in linear, sector, and compound scanning modes. Reference:
Dempsey, Peter J. "Journal of Ultrasound in Medicine." The History of Breast Ultrasound. N.p., 1 July 2004. Web. 07 Apr. 2013. -
Grey Scale Imaging
An important breakthrough occurred with the introduction of gray scale imaging. Kossoff and Jellins along with their colleages at the Commonwealth Acoustic Laboratories designed Octoson scanner. The device had 8 transducers fixed within the water bath. A gray scale technique was integrated along with focused array format, and also the principles of gray scale sonography for all soft tissues were described. Reference:
"A History of Automated Breast Ultrasound." CapeRay Blog. N.p., 31 Aug. 2012. -
Water coupled commercial instrument invent
Dr. Elizabeth Kelly-Fry invented a water coupled commercial device in Indiana University. Synthetic breasts immitating human tissue were used for scanning. Based on her invention, later on Labsonics (Australia) marketed a similar device, where patients lay supine on the examining table. -
More Scanners appear
Automated breast scanners were developed by the Life Imaging Corporation and by Johnson & Johnson (New Brunswick, NJ) in Australia and the United States, respectively. They used a prone position for scanning with patient's breast suspended in water filled, temperature controlled tank. Reference:
Dempsey, Peter J. "Journal of Ultrasound in Medicine." The History of Breast Ultrasound. N.p., 1 July 2004. Web. 09 Apr. 2013. -
Digital technology
Early 80's are marked by discovery of digital ultrasound, which brought advancements to the field of breast imaging as well. Such aspects as resolution and signal processing were greatly improved. Reference:
Dempsey, Peter J. "Journal of Ultrasound in Medicine." The History of Breast Ultrasound. N.p., 1 July 2004. Web. 09 Apr. 2013. -
More discoveries
Two major discoveries in digital technology directly influenced the field of ultrasound breast imaging.Those were tissue harmonics and spatial compounding. Tissue harmonics uses frequencies originating within the body, and spatial compunding uses multiple beams from different angles to create a better quality images. Referemce:
Dempsey, Peter J. "Journal of Ultrasound in Medicine." The History of Breast Ultrasound. N.p., 1 July 2004. Web. 09 Apr. 2013. -
Breast Elastography
Elastography is a new tool that became available over the last decade. Many manufacturers incorporate this feature into their ultrasound systems. Elastography is based on tissue characteristics such as stiffness to create images. Stiffness varies with different types of tissue. Firstly, B-mode image of the mass is obtained. Then compression is applied to the area of interest, and two images are compared side to side. -
Breast Elastography Cont.
ElastographyMachine will make a comparison of the mass' stiffness and its surroundg area and will color code an elastogram accordingly. Colors used to charachterize the tissue are yellow, red, green and blue. Yellow means tumor has low stiffness, blue means it is hard compared to its surroundings.
Here is how it works: Reference:
Wojcinski, Sebastian. "Ultrasound Real-time Elastography Can Predict Malignancy in BI-RADS®-US 3 Lesions." BMC Cancer. 07 Apr 2013 -
3D breast image
New technology is developed by Techniscan and pending FDA approval. It is a 3 D Hologram of breast obtained from 3 different ultrasound images. The system rotates around every 2 Degrees and sends waves to the receiver on the other side of the breast. Volumetric image is created using the measurments of the ultrasound reflection, sound
attenuation and speed of sound.
Reference:
Sag, Anshel. "Techniscan Uses GPGPU to Make a Better Breast Ultrasound Device." - Bright Side Of News*. 05 Oct. 2009.
