Development of ultrasonic investigations in medicine and biology in the U.S.S.R.

Ultrasonic research in biology and medicine, both fundamental and applied, has become so vast in scope, that a mere listing of specific subject-areas would take up too much space. This article is intended to give an overview of Soviet scientists' contribution to the field, with the emphasis on the most important and promising subject-areas which are now given priority in the U.S.S.R. Among specific subject-areas in ultrasonics are the studies of the biological action of ultrasound and ultrasonic safety in medicine, the effect of focused ultrasound, acoustic spectroscopy of solutions of biological media and acoustic specification of biological objects, acoustic visualization and microscopy and clinical ultrasonics.