BODY ULTRASONOGRAPHY .1.

(First of Two Parts) SINCE the introduction of gray-scale signal processing in 1974, B-scan sonography has become a widely accepted method for noninvasive imaging of nearly all abdominal and pelvic viscera. Results in varied clinical settings have proved sonography an accurate, versatile and inexpensive technic yielding high-resolution cross-sectional tomographic images with negligible risk or discomfort. Useful diagnostic contributions of high-frequency ultrasound imaging had been demonstrated several years earlier for special problems in obstetrics, cardiology and ophthalmology. However, broader clinical applications awaited the advent of the wide-dynamic-range (gray-scale) display for enhanced texture information of solid parenchymatous organs. Concomitant advances in transducer. © 1979, Massachusetts Medical Society. All rights reserved.