Introduction:

Sound propagates in a medium taking advantage of its elastic properties. This study describes the evolution of cardiac ultrasonography and its application in cardiology.

Material and methods:

Descriptive review of data bases, concepts were explored in electronic physics and physiology texts, expanding the concepts by means of the Snowball method.

Results:

18th and 19th century: Spallanzani recognised the existence of echolocation in the animal model (bats); piezoelectricity is discovered.

20th century:

applying echolocation in the SONAR system and brain tumour detection, foreign bodies in organic tissue and intestinal and breast tissue malignancies.

50s and 60s: masses in the left atrium were identified, mitral valve disease description begins, first M-mode echocardiograms are described. In the 60s a single element transducer allowed for intracardiac echocardiograms, later on a slow rotating transducer displayed 2 D images.

In the 80s transthoracic echocardiogram is born to assess patients with a poor acoustic window; in the 90s omniplane and biplane transducers with Doppler ability and colour flow were introduced. Over the last years, development of echocardiograms have broadened their scope towards minimally invasive surgery.

Conclusion:

Big steps have been taken in parallel with progress of ultrasounds in the medical field, their onset in echolocation described in bats until 3 D cardiac ultrasonography have contributed to the development of new non-invasive techniques in cardiovascular medicine.

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