First use of diagnostic ultrasound

Dr. Karl Dussik, a psychiatrist, at the hospital in Bad Ischl, Austria was the first person publishing a medical use of diagnostic ultrasound.

He was trying to locate brain tumors with a new method consisting of an ultrasound emitter at one end and an ultrasound receiver at the other. The patient stayed between the two devices. He measured the ultrasound beam transmission through the patient's head. The outbound ultrasound beam power was known and he calculated the receiving power, defining ultrasound attenuation and reinforcement. He also tried to visualize the cerebral ventricles by measuring the ultrasound beam modification through the head. Dr. Dussik published his technique in 1942 with the name of "Hyperphonography of the Brain."