Radiology--a twenty-five-year review.

Abstract

With the last month of 1965 the present Editor of Radiology completes his twenty-fifth year in that capacity and turns over to his successor the honor of thus serving the Radiological Society of North America (for it is undeed an honor) as well as the hard work and responsibility entailed. Twenty-five years is a relatively long span in the life of a specialty which is only seventy years old, and it has added significance in this instance in that it represents more than half of the period of publishing activity of the Radiological Society. During that time the practice of radiology has undergone many changes. The radiologist has perforce become a physiologist, physicist, and biologist, as well as an astute clinician. Within the parent specialty there have developed a group of subspecialties based upon the vast amount of accumulated knowledge which has made it impossible for any individual to encompass the whole field. We thus have Radiotherapy, Pediatric Radiology, Neuroradiology, Radiation Physics, and Radiation Biology, each with a special society devoted to its advancement. Many of the changes have come about through the influence of the atomic era, which is coexistent with this period. In a review of the development of radiology during the past quarter of a century, it soon became apparent that the changes have been so far-reaching that only a few can be mentioned. An attempt will be made to call attention to those discoveries which have most significantly influenced or indicated the trend of the science in that period. A number of our most valuable radiological procedures had earlier origins but were brought to full fruition in this era. Among these are: Angiography (1931), Laminagraphy (1932), and Mammography (1930). A prominent role in these developments has been played by the improvement of opacifying agents and the apparatus which made possible the rapid sequence of radiographs to implement the expanding studies of the internal organs, which are in the forefront of the new radiology. Cerebral arteriography was first done by Moniz in 1927 but was not reported clinically until about 1940, by Gross et at. A notable contribution on this subject was published by List, Burge, and Hodges in Radiology in 1945. Since that time many improvements in the procedure have been made, and it has now become routine. In 1938 Robb and Steinberg introduced angiography of the heart and the pulmonary circulation which has proved to be of great value. Abdominal aortography by direct aortic puncture was initiated by dos Santos in 1929. In 1946 Farinas published in Radiology his technic of retrograde aortography by way of the femoral artery. Both methods have their uses and have contributed significantly to surgery of the aorta and iliacs. One of the first descriptions of angiography of the thoracic aorta and the coronary vessels was published in Radiology in 1948 by Meneses Hoyos and Gomez del Campo.