ABSTRACT
Endoscopic ultrasound (EUS) is a marriage between ultrasound and endoscopy. Cross-sectional images of the gut wall and adjacent structures are obtained by passing an ultrasound probe into the gastrointestinal (GI) tract. The technique originated just after the second world war, when newly obsolete naval ultrasound equipment became available. Wild and Reid modi¢ed the equipment and developed a mechanical ultrasound transducer, which they inserted into the rectum of several healthy volunteers in order to obtain endoluminal ultrasound images of the rectal wall (1). The upper gastrointestinal tract was ¢rst examined by Rasmussen and colleagues (2), who passed an ultrasound catheter probe down the biopsy channel of an early endoscope. They were able to measure the thickness of the stomach wall with this technology.
