What clinical use did Inge Edler and Carl Hellmuth Hertz first achieve in 1953?
Echocardiography using M-mode observation
The true birth of diagnostic medical ultrasound is often credited to the pioneering work conducted by Inge Edler and Carl Hellmuth Hertz in Lund, Sweden, in 1953. They successfully adapted an industrial flaw detector for medical application, resulting in the first clinical use of the technology for observing the motion of the heart valves. This specific technique involved using what is now defined as M-mode, or Motion mode, imaging. M-mode displays the strength of reflected signals along a single line, but crucially varies the display over time, allowing visualization of structures moving along that line, which was perfect for observing the dynamic movement of cardiac structures during the heartbeat cycle.
