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Three Dimension Ultrasound Imaging
If a scan is performed so that all the slices are approximately
in the same plane, the position information can be used to patch them
together to create a composite "panorama'' image. This can be done
'live', with the image built up on the screen as the scan is performed
(see Figure 5).
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Figure 5: An extended field of view image generated
by joining up a large number of individual 2D scan images.
Click here
for a larger image.
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It is
interesting to draw parallels between today's 3D ultrasound research and
the pioneering days of medical ultrasound. The first ultrasound scan was
produced by Wild & Reid in 1953. In 1964, Smiths Industries on Clydeside
produced the first commercial 2D scanner, called the Diasonograph, incorporating
mechanisms from shipbuilding and a multitude of valves. By the 1970s,
improvements in transducer design resulted in better images, and the 2D
ultrasound machine, as we now know it, emerged in the 1980s.
 
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