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

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

The three-dimensional ultrasound imaging method comprise emitting an ultrasonic wave to a fetal head; receiving an ultrasonic echo to acquire an ultrasonic echo signal; acquiring three-dimensional volume data of the fetal head according to the ultrasonic echo signal; detecting a median sagittal section from the three-dimensional volume data according to features of the median sagittal section of the fetal head; determining a facing orientation of the fetal head in the median sagittal section; displaying the median sagittal section as an image suitable for observation according to the facing orientation of the fetal head.

The three-dimensional ultrasound imaging method comprise emitting an ultrasonic wave to a fetal head; receiving an ultrasonic echo to acquire an ultrasonic echo signal; acquiring three-dimensional volume data of the fetal head according to the ultrasonic echo signal; detecting a median sagittal section from the three-dimensional volume data according to features of the median sagittal section of the fetal head; determining a facing orientation of the fetal head in the median sagittal section; displaying the median sagittal section as an image suitable for observation according to the facing orientation of the fetal head.

A system and method from improving the image quality achievable with an ultrasound transducer by using a composite aperture for receiving ultrasound echoes. By using two receive cycles per vector, twice as many transducers may be used for receiving ultrasound imaging data than there are physical channels available in the ultrasound probe. An ultrasound probe utilizing a composite aperture can achieve high image quality from a system have reduced power, size, cost and complexity.

A system and method from improving the image quality achievable with an ultrasound transducer by using a composite aperture for receiving ultrasound echoes. By using two receive cycles per vector, twice as many transducers may be used for receiving ultrasound imaging data than there are physical channels available in the ultrasound probe. An ultrasound probe utilizing a composite aperture can achieve high image quality from a system have reduced power, size, cost and complexity.

A system for delivering drugs or other molecules to the brain comprises an ultrasound imaging transducer configured to image structures such as the circle of Willis within a patient's head by way of a low attenuation acoustic window. The system includes a processor configured to register the ultrasound images to previously obtained images which also include the structures. The system includes ultrasound transducer elements operable to deliver ultrasound energy to a target region to cause the blood brain barrier to open. The system may include a drug delivery system that may be operated to deliver a drug to the patient in coordination with opening the blood brain barrier. Coordinates of the target region relative to the ultrasound imaging transducer are determined using registration information.

A method of determining a three-dimensional motion of a movable ultrasound probe (10) is described. The method is carried out during acquisition of an ultrasound image of a volume portion (2) by the ultrasound probe. The method comprises receiving a stream of ultrasound image data (20) from the ultrasound probe (10) while the ultrasound probe is moved along the volume portion (2); inputting at least a sub-set of the ultrasound image data (20, 40) representing a plurality of ultrasound image frames (22) into a machine-learning module (50), wherein the machine learning module (50) has been trained to determine the relative three-dimensional motion between ultrasound image frames (22); and determining, by the machine-learning module (50), a three-dimensional motion indicator (60) indicating the relative three-dimensional motion between the ultrasound image frames.

For three-dimensional segmentation from two-dimensional intracardiac echocardiography imaging, the three-dimension segmentation is output by a machine-learnt multi-task generator. The machine-learnt multi-task generator is trained from 3D information, such as a sparse ICE volume assembled from the 2D ICE images. The machine-learnt multi-task generator is trained to output both the 3D segmentation and a complete volume. The 3D segmentation may be used to project to 2D as an input with an ICE image to another network trained to output a 2D segmentation for the ICE image. Display of the 3D segmentation and/or 2D segmentation may guide ablation of tissue in the patient.

Aspects of the technology described herein related to monitoring fetal heartbeat and uterine contraction signals. An ultrasound system may be configured to sweep a volume to collect ultrasound data, detect a fetal heartbeat and/or uterine contraction signal in the ultrasound data, and automatically steer an ultrasound beam to monitor the fetal heartbeat and/or uterine contraction signal. The ultrasound system may be further configured to determine a location where the fetal heartbeat and/or uterine contraction signal is detectable or detectable at a highest quality. The ultrasound system may include a wearable ultrasound device, such as an ultrasound patch coupled to a subject. The wearable ultrasound device may have a two-dimensional array of ultrasonic transducers capable of steering ultrasound beams in three dimensions.