The
following is not a translation of the above paragraphs)
Ultrasound diagnosis has in fact started fairly early in China
compared with many other countries. Between 1964 and 1974 the
Cultural Revolution had brought turmoil to the country which not
only completely stopped ultrasonic development for10 years but also
made the country poor enough to embark on any large scale
development that follows.
Ultrasound diagnosis started in Shanghai in 1958 with the
establishment of the Shanghai Ultrasonic Medical Research Group (
)
at the Sixth People's Hospital of Shanghai. The group was led by
Shih An (
) in
collaboration with researchers from the Shanghai First and Second
Medical Colleges. They used a Chiang Nan Type 1 (
)
metal flaw detector with a frequency of 2.5 megahertz. (pictured on
left). The first National Ultrasound Conference was held in Wuhan (
)
in July 1959, where the usefulness of ultrasonics was bought to the
attention of the medical community. In their first papers in
1960 and
1962 (mentioned above and linked below), A-scope patterns of
diseases of the liver, stomach, cervical cancer, breast tumors,
normal pregnancies and hydatidiform moles were pictorially and
impressively presented. This was a seminal paper as far as
hydatidiform mole
was concerned as this has not been formaly reported in the
literature.
In July 1961 the first book on ultrasound "ultrasonic diagnosis"
(
) was
published in China. The contents included basic physics, equipment
and A-mode operations only. 2500 copies were printed and circulated.
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Also in 1962 Xiang-Hui Wu (
),
Wang-Xue Guo (
)
and others published on A-mode findings in hepatitis, cirrhosis and
hepatocellular carcinoma. By 1964, a number of other reports have
appeared in the Chinese literature. The papers in
1963 by
Yong-Chang Chou (
)
and Xin-Fang Wang
(
)
(separately) on A and
M-mode study
of fetal cardiac pulsations were seminal papers in the field and had
preceeded Fred Winsberg's paper by 3 years. In 1964, Xin-Fang Wang
also pioneered prototype echocardiographic equipments synchronized
to electrocardiographic and phonocardiographic signals. In the same
year his group published important works which clarified mechanisms
of various valvular echo patterns.
The earliest
B-mode scanner was built in 1960 at the Zhong Shan Hospital,
Shanghai Medical University (
).
200 cases of pathologies including liver tumors, ovarian cysts,
uterine fibroids, molar pregnancies, aortic anerysms etc. were
subsequently reported. Similar studies were carried out at Beijing
and Wuhan at about the same time. These were reported in the
National Conferences in 1961 and 1962. Production of B-mode scanners
were carried out at an Aerial and Radar supplies factory in Wuhan.
Doppler ultrasound was also in use as early as 1961 in Shanghai.
In that year Yian Xian (
)
at the Third People's Hospital in Shanghai had started to use
continuous wave doppler to study cardac valves. In 1962,
Zhi-Zhang
Xu (
) at
the Zhong Shan Hospital ()
reported doppler findings in arteritis, phebitis, aneurysm and
stenosis. Xu also reported in the same year M-mode diagnosis of
mitral valvular stenosis. By 1966, doppler investigations were
extended to pregnancy in the study of fetal cardiac pulsations and
in 1970, continuous fetal heart monitoring in labor. Pulsed-doppler
on the other hand came after the 10 year break and only appeared in
1982 where Li Zhang (
)
first reported its use in cardiology.
The investigations into real-time equipments had also started as
early as 1974 at the Central Military Hospital in Beijing (
)
where a prototype mechanical apparatus was fabricated. In the next
year they produced the first 20 crystals linear-array in China which
was used to study pregnancy and the female pelvis. By 1979 the group
produced a mechanical sector scanner and in 1980 a phased-array
sector scanner for cardiac investigations. In the last National
conference in 1964 before the onset of the Culural Revolution, 117
degates attended and there were 108 papers read.
Only in 1974 (a lapse of the 10 years), that another book on
medical ultrasound "Ultrasonic Diagnosis" ()
was written. It was printed by the Central Military Hospital in
Beijing ()
and 10,000 copies were in circulation. The book contained
information of A-, B- M- mode, Doppler and an introduction on
real-time ultrasound. The National Ultrasound Conference resumed in
September 1975 and was held in Harbin. There were 37 delegates and
41 papers read. Many had realised the standard of technology was low
as the world had been moving ahead with great rapidity in the losed
years. The National UltrasoundTechnology Information Liason Group (
)
was formed. In December 1976, the the group organised a national
Seminar on ultrasound diagnosis and was attended by 200 delegates
and 250 papers were read.
The
Chinese Association of Ultrasound Research (
)
was formed in 1984 by 88 Chinese ultrasound luminaries. Wang-Xue Guo
() was the
first president. The official publication "Journal of the Chinese
Association of Ultrasound in Medicine and Engineering" (
)
was inaugurated in 1985. The association changed its name to the
"Chinese Association of Ultrasound in Medicine and Engineering" (
)
in 1986. The association now has 12,000 members. The Chinese Medical
Association also hosts a smaller "Society of Ultrasound in Medicine"
(
).
Ultrasound diagnosis further developed in China but it was not
until the early 1990s that the country began to catch up with world
standards, research and developments.
In 1988, Xin-Fang
Wang (),
Yong-Chang Chou (),
Wang-Xue Guo (),
Zhi-Zhang Xu ()
and physicist Ruo Feng (
)
were presented with the "History of Medical Ultrasound Pioneer
Award" by the World Federation of Ultrasound in Medicine and Biology
(WFUMB). The ceremony was held in Washington DC in the United
States.
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