Very near the beginning of World War II, Karl Dussik began exploring ultrasound technology for diagnostic purposes by "attempted to locate brain tumors and the cerebral ventricles by measuring the transmission of ultrasound beam through the skull" (Woo 7). This experiment produced disappointing results, and the development of this apparatus was not pursued further because of the elaborate set-up, and lack of clear visual representations of the brain.

However, at about the same time in Hamburg, Germany, Heinrich Netheler and Wolf-Dieter Keidel were independently working on developing ultrasound technology for the purpose of diagnosis. Where most development on the topic was still focused on the treatment of diseases, both Keidel and Netheler presented papers to the First Congress of Ultrasound in Medicine held in Erlangen, Germany in May, 1948, on the potential of ultrasound technology use in the diagnostic field.

The first diagnostic research conducted in the United States was...
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