The textbook "Neuroradiology" by Assoc. Professor Ryszard Chrzanowski
Although
radiological examinations for the purposes of neurology or neurosurgery
were carried out before 1939, yet the origin of Polish neuroradiology
is associated with the activity of Professor Stanisława Spettowa. During
her 26 busy years of work (since 1946) in the Kraków University Hospital
she created the Polish school of neuroradiology. She introduced to the
world bibliography, along with the neurosurgeon Prof. Kunicki, the term
"brain medial area tumor". Her successor Assoc. Prof. Ryszard
Chrzanowski was the author of the first Polish textbook of neuradiology
issued in 1970 by the publishing house Polskie Zakłady Wydawnictw Lekarskich.
Professor Stanisława Spettowa (1902-1994)
Towards the end of the 1930s Dr Edward Matuszek from Warsaw
developed the method of obtaining "layer films of any desired curvature
or the refraction of the cross-section area". He performed a number
of arduous experiments and mathematical calculations. The war delayed
his studies, but in 1949 at the meeting of the Warsaw Section of the Polish
Medical Society of Radiology he presented his method. He presented tomograms
of the curvatures of the plaster model of the facial skeleton taken with
the use of a device of his own construction. In his device the object
investigated and the roentgen film were movable, whereas the source of
radiation was immovable. His disease made it impossible for him to continue
his studies; as a result, Dr Matuszek withdrew from professional activity;
he died in 1952. Unfortunately, his disease as well as the difficulty
in foreign contacts at that time ("Cold
War") resulted in the fact that his achievements failed to be
commonly applied, whereas they were ahead of the introduction of pantomography
by Paatero from Finland in the 1950s.
Professor
Janusz Buraczewski
(1911-1992)
In the years 1947-81 the Head of the Department of Radiology of the Institute of Oncology, Warsaw was professor Janusz Buraczewski. He established the Polish school of oncological radiology. He was the inventor of the method referred to as “macroscopic tissue diagnostics”. He was particularly interested in the diagnostics of bone tumours. Along with Dr D±bska, he was the co-author of the first work on the symptomatology of aneurysmal bone cyst in the world (D±bska M., Buraczewski J. Aneurysmal bone cyst -pathology, clinical course and radiologic appearances. Cancer 1969, 23:371). He also established the first Bone Tumour Register (Rejestr Guzów Ko¶ci) in Poland. He initiated microradiographic investigations of bone lesion sections (from the 1970s the research programme was carried on by Prof. Janina Dziukowa, his successor).
In the early 1960s Prof. Buraczewski started xerographic examinations.
They were performed using the Xerofot-Piast device, constructed along
with the staff of the Chair of Physics, the Warsaw University of Technology
(Politechnika Warszawska) (Szymańska W. ed. Elektrofografia /Electrophotography/.
Warszawa. 1965 Wyd. Naukowo-Techniczne). In the 1975 he introduced mammography
(xeromammography) nation-wide.
He was the editor of the monograph "Radiodiagnostics of neoplastic
lesions” (Buraczewski J. ed., Radiodiagnostyka zmian nowotworowych. Warszawa.
PZWL, published 1977 and 1987).
Dr Janusz Bowkiewicz
(1928-1992)
Pictures of the first
Polish angioplasty (1967)
Wawrzynek Z., Lipka E.: Przypadek pomy¶lnego udrożnienia wewnętrznego tętnicy udowej /A case of successful restoration of patency of the femoral artery/. Polski Tygodnik Lekarski /Polish Medical Weekly/ 1968, 28: 1110-1111.
In the 1970s the then state-of-the-art angiography units were purchased for the main university centres. That resulted in the development of angioradiology. At that time the first coronarography was performed in ŁódĽ.
Professor Leszek Filipczyński
(1923-)
Ultrasound examinations were performed in Poland as early as the 1960s (mainly in obstetrics and gynaecology). A considerable contribution to the world ultrasonography was made by team headed by professor L. Filipczyński from Warsaw. In 1966 a Polish ultrasound unit was produced. In 1969 the first ultrasonic imaging of the eye was performed (Filipczyński L: Compound and Rapid Scan Ultrasonic Imaging of Eye Structures. In: Ophtalmic Ultrasound Proc. Ultrasonography in Ophtalmology. (Ed.) R. Sarin Mosby. St. Louis, 196: 207-212) and in 1976 quantitative measurements of arterial blood flow were performed - both as the first such examinations in the world (Nowicki A: Ultrasonic Pulse Doppler Method in Blood Flow. Measurement. Archives of Acoustics, 1977; 2, 4:305-323).
The first computed tomograph in Poland was installed in the Department
of Radiology at Medical University, Poznań in 1979.
Polish MRI system built in Kraków
- first images
In 1991 two MRI systems were installed in
Warszawa as first ones in Poland (Departments of Radiology at Railways
Hospital and Neuropsychological Institute). It is worth mentioning here
that Professor Andrzej Jasiński and his group at the Department of Radiospectroscopy
at Henryk Niewodniczański Institute of Nuclear Physics in Kraków started
MRI research in Poland by building first experimental MRI system in 1985.
The system was based on a 0.6 T permanent magnet with a gap of 60mm with
a home built MRI console in CAMAC standard, interfaced to a minicomputer
with a software system developed in house. First good quality MR images
of plants and small animals were obtained in 1986 and presented at the
XIX Polish Seminar on NMR and its Applications in Kraków. This system
was upgraded in 1992 to a MR Microscope based on a 6.3T/53mm vertical
bore superconducting magnet.
In 1995, at the centenary of the discovery of X-rays the XXXIV Congress of the Polish Medical Society of Radiology was held in ŁódĽ. On that occasion a reprint of Roentgen's first report, translated into Polish by Dr Stanisław Srebrny and published (January 30, 1896) as a booklet, was issued.
In 1996 the centenary of the Polish radiology was celebrated (it came into being in January 1896 in Kraków) by the organisation of an exhibition in the Jagiellonian University Museum
In 1998 the first teleradiology and RIS systems (soon upgraded with PACS) in Poland were installed (the Department of Radiology - Kraków University Hospital)
In 1999 a thorough reform of the specialisation training system in radiology was implemented (among other things, a unified central exam, and since 2003 a practical exam by means of computer monitor presented pictures)
In 1999 the Polish Radiology website - www.polradiologia.org
- was created.
"The history of Polish radiology against the background of the world radiology"
In 2000, published by the Kraków publisher Medycyna Praktyczna "The history of the Polish radiology against the background of the world radiology" edited by Prof. Stanisław Leszczyński appeared.
In 2001 the Borys Rajewski medal was awarded to Professor Bogdan Pruszyński. It is the highest radiology distinction in Europe awarded for a significant contribution to the development of European radiology.
In 2003 in the Bydgoszcz Centre of Oncology the first PET/CT unit was started in Poland.