Dr. John J. Wild, Pioneer of Diagnostic Ultrasound  

Photo Gallery:  Early Ultrasonic Mammography Clinical Research (1953-1960)

Figure 1.   The picture shows a large breast cancer in a young woman who was unaware of the seriousness of her situation.  The large volume cancer could be diagnosed immediately by sight (note enlargement under the patient’s left arm) and by feel.  The prognosis was hopeless, which motivated Dr. Wild to try to do something about such tragedies.  Dr. Wild pursued early breast cancer detection and diagnosis because the earlier the stage breast cancer is found the greater the hope of cure.   

Figure 2.  An early A-mode examination of a patient with John Reid adjusting the controls.

Figure 3.  The slide represents the results of the two initial cases referred to Dr. Wild at the Wold Chamberlain Navy Air Force Base.  The benign and malignant records are arranged with the time versus amplitude graphs over the microscopic sections, which are sections C and F.  Records A-E were made with Dr. Wild’s echograph.   Upper records A and B (left) and the records D and E (right) are time amplitude graphs, or A-modes, of the histological sections of C and F.  C was diagnosed histologically as benign and F was diagnosed histologically as malignant.   If A and B are compared it can be seen that A has a far greater amount of echoes than B.  The top record or A is of normal tissue.  It can be seen that there are far more echoes coming from A, or the normal, as compared to the echoes coming out of the tumor, which is B.  On the other hand, the records on the right hand side, which are not in any way comparable to the records on the left side, show that far more sound is coming out of the cancerous tissue (E) evidenced by the far greater number of echoes coming out of record E as compared to the normal tissue results, D (far less sonic energy is reflected by tumorous tissue.)  The nuclear density of F is believed to be responsible for the greater amount of sonic energy reflection by malignant tissue.  

Figure 4.  Confirmation of the histological nature of the breast tissue examined (in blue box) using computation of the area under the time amplitude graph of three different types of lesions (cystic, benign and cancerous) in three separate cases.   

Figure 5.  Demonstration of Dr. Wild’s clinical method for searching the breast for possible abnormal growths.  In order to obtain access to glandular breast tissue, the breast was flattened under the influence of gravity.   Mr. Reid was adjusting the ultrasonic B-scan instrument for maximum image production.  This method exemplified the necessity for interdisciplinary work between engineering and clinical medicine in the field of diagnostic ultrasound.       

Figure 6.  Dr. Wild and Mr. Reid adjusting the controls of the automatic breast tumor scanner designed and built by Dr. Wild.  The machine was built in old nurses’ quarters at St. Barnabas Hospital.
Figure 7.  One of the several proposed methods developed by Dr. Wild for automatic breast scanning.

Last modified: January 15, 2003