Doppler Sonography: A Brief History

Abstract

The origins of modern medical technology may be traced to nineteenth-century europe, when the industrial revolution ushered in sweeping changes in every aspect of life. Of all the momentous discoveries and inventions of this period, there was one relatively obscure scientific event that laid the foundation for the subsequent development of Doppler technologies in the twentieth century — the discovery of a natural phenomenon that came to be known as Doppler effect. Another critical event was the discovery of the piezoelectric phenomenon by Pierre Curie and Jacques Curie, which enabled the development of ultrasonic transducers many decades later. This chapter briefly describes the origin of the Doppler theory during the nineteenth century and traces the development of diagnostic Doppler ultrasound technology during the second half of the twentieth century to the present.