A temporal view of soft tissue quantitative ultrasound

The objective of soft tissue quantitative ultrasound (QUS) is to improve diagnostic ultrasound imaging capabilities via quantitative outcomes. Over the past three or so decades, there have been an increasing number of QUS successes. A temporal view moves us back in history almost six decades when techniques and theoretical developments were in their earliest stages that impacted modern QUS successes. The earliest theoretical developments and techniques some six decades ago can be attributed to Lev Chernov, Philip Morse, Herman Feshbach, Uno Ingard, John Wild and Jack Reid. Later, Floyd Dunn developed important views as to how connective tissue affected the interaction between ultrasound and soft tissue. Then, as the theory of wave propagation in soft tissues with random inhomogeneities was extended and applied by Fred Lizzi, Jim Zagzebski and Mike Insana (and their colleagues), contemporary QUS successes started to emerge.