From Lichtenstein's 2008 paper [1], mentioned in that article as the start of it:
> Ultrasound has long shown its utility for plain organs.6 Although the lung has traditionally been excluded from its repertoire,7 studies have proven that this belief was unfounded.8 Since 1989 in our ICU, using devoted logistics,9 the concept of whole-body ultrasound was developed and extended to the lungs for managing critical situations.10,11
And in his big guidebook [2]:
> We used ultrasound first in 1983, on occasion in François Fraisse’s ICU in 1985–1989, then since 1989 in François Jardin’s ICU, using the on-site 1982 ADR-4000 devoted to cardiac assessment, in actual fact suitable for whole body and lung assessment and not larger than nowadays laptops [1]. At this time, although an old idea [2], ultrasound was not routine in the ICUs and had neglected this vital organ [3]. Many doctors thought that lung ultrasound was unfeasible [4, 5]. For demonstrating that this dogma was wrong, deciphering the artifact code was the easy part, but publishing was the hard one, far from finished.
It doesn't sound like there was a breakthrough in the instruments, just that people had written off lung ultrasound quite early, and someone had to go back and try it properly, and then convince everyone else there was something to it!
> Ultrasound has long shown its utility for plain organs.6 Although the lung has traditionally been excluded from its repertoire,7 studies have proven that this belief was unfounded.8 Since 1989 in our ICU, using devoted logistics,9 the concept of whole-body ultrasound was developed and extended to the lungs for managing critical situations.10,11
And in his big guidebook [2]:
> We used ultrasound first in 1983, on occasion in François Fraisse’s ICU in 1985–1989, then since 1989 in François Jardin’s ICU, using the on-site 1982 ADR-4000 devoted to cardiac assessment, in actual fact suitable for whole body and lung assessment and not larger than nowadays laptops [1]. At this time, although an old idea [2], ultrasound was not routine in the ICUs and had neglected this vital organ [3]. Many doctors thought that lung ultrasound was unfeasible [4, 5]. For demonstrating that this dogma was wrong, deciphering the artifact code was the easy part, but publishing was the hard one, far from finished.
It doesn't sound like there was a breakthrough in the instruments, just that people had written off lung ultrasound quite early, and someone had to go back and try it properly, and then convince everyone else there was something to it!
[1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3734893/
[2] https://annalsofintensivecare.springeropen.com/articles/10.1...