Markers for use in bodily tissue take a variety of forms, and may include a plurality of ultrasound reflective elements, for example hollow shells filled with air, and a hydrogel that binds the ultrasound reflective elements. The hydrogel may be natural or artificial and may be cross-linked. An ultrasound system advantageously injects variance in a drive signal, that varies a frequency or phase of an ultrasound interrogation signal from a nominal frequency or nominal phase. The amount of variation is preferable one to six orders of magnitude less than the nominal frequency or phase. The ultrasound system can present or detect a twinkling artifact at least in a Doppler mode of operation, resulting from interaction of the varying interrogation signal with the ultrasound reflective elements.

Disclosed herein is a system that includes an ultrasound imaging probe having a first optical fiber integrated therein and a console optically coupled with the ultrasound imaging probe via a first elongate member. The console includes one or more processors and a non-transitory computer-readable medium having stored thereon logic, that when executed by the one or more processors, causes operations that can include providing an incident light signal to the first optical fiber via the first elongate member, receiving reflected light signals of different spectral widths of the incident light from the first optical fiber and the second optical fiber, processing the reflected light signals to determine a first three-dimensional (3D) shape extending along a length including at least portions of the first optical fiber and the second optical fiber, and causing rendering of an image of the first 3D shape on a display of the medical system.

Disclosed herein is a method for operating an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus, including: obtaining a first ultrasonic image of an object, based on an ultrasonic signal reflected from the object and received by a probe; obtaining a first scan mark to which information of a first position relation between the object and the probe when the first ultrasonic image is obtained is reflected, based on a result of recognition of the first ultrasonic image, wherein the first scan mark is a mark in which a probe mark is positioned on a first body mark of the object, based on the information of the first position relation; and displaying the first scan mark.

Systems and methods for deep tissue visualization using ultrasound and stereo imaging are provided. Various aspects of the present disclosure provide intraoperative identification of sub-tissue surface critical structures (e.g., identification of ureters, nerves, and/or vessels). For example, various surgical visualization systems disclosed herein can enable the visualization of one or more portions of critical structures below the surface of the tissue in an anatomical field in real-time. Such surgical visualization systems can augment the clinician's endoscopic view of an anatomical field with a virtual, real-time depiction of the critical structure as a visible image overlay on the surface of visible tissue in the field of view of the clinician.

A system for robot-assisted ultrasound scanning comprises a multi axis robot with an end effector, a transducer holding element for connecting an ultrasound transducer to the end effector, a user input arrangement having at least three separate proportional inputs representing desired ultrasound transducer displacement along X, Y and Z axes of an orthogonal coordinate system defining the ultrasound transducer motion, and a controller which is connected to the user input arrangement and which controls the end effector based on input. The controller acquires a 3D model of a surface to be scanned and is arranged to continuously update the orthogonal coordinate system defining the ultrasound transducer motion as the ultrasound transducer moves, the X, Y and Z axes are arranged as described. In this way, the operator can easily move the transducer along the surface of the area to be scanned.

A system and related methods for performing nerve detection during surgical access using ultrasound testing during surgery.

The present disclosure relates to a method and system for diagnosing blood vessel obstruction, such as would occur in deep vein thrombosis (DVT). More specifically, the present disclosure relates to a software tool for use with sensor hardware to allow users to perform standardised and repeatable testing of patients to assist with diagnosis of deep vein thrombosis or related conditions. The present disclosure further relates to an apparatus and method for conducting the diagnosis. The apparatus includes an imaging probe and a computing device, where the computing device is configured to assist the user in placing the imaging probe on a blood vessel and moving the imaging probe between predetermined landmarks along the blood vessel.

The present invention relates to a method for obtaining elastic properties of a soft solid by means of quasi-omnidirectional transverse waves generated by a focused ultrasound beam, with a helical phase profile that produces an acoustic vortex that generates a transverse wave front, not only in the direction perpendicular to the ultrasound beam but also in the same direction as the ultrasound beam. The invention also allows control of the transverse wave front generated, which facilitates the carrying out of elastography studies at different frequencies and increases the amplitude of the transverse waves produced, thereby improving the signal-to-noise ratio.

Markers for use in bodily tissue take a variety of forms, and may include a plurality of ultrasound reflective elements, for example hollow shells filled with air, and a hydrogel that binds the ultrasound reflective elements. The hydrogel may be natural or artificial and may be cross-linked. An ultrasound system advantageously injects variance in a drive signal, that varies a frequency or phase of an ultrasound interrogation signal from a nominal frequency or nominal phase. The amount of variation is preferable one to six orders of magnitude less than the nominal frequency or phase. The ultrasound system can present or detect a twinkling artifact at least in a Doppler mode of operation, resulting from interaction of the varying interrogation signal with the ultrasound reflective elements.

Provided is a balloon for an ultrasonic endoscope in which an ultrasound oscillator surface of an ultrasound transducer can be most swollen.

A balloon for an ultrasonic endoscope that is mounted to cover an outside surface of an ultrasound transducer provided in a distal end part body on a distal end side of an insertion part includes a bottomed tubular balloon body that has an opening portion provided at one end in a first direction corresponding to a longitudinal direction of the insertion part and attached to the distal end part body, covers an oscillator surface of the ultrasound transducer, and stores an ultrasonic wave transmission medium inside, to be swellable, and a swelling restricting part that, in a case where the ultrasonic wave transmission medium is stored inside the balloon body, makes an oscillator surface region facing the oscillator surface of the ultrasound transducer most swollen by restricting a part of the balloon body.