Methods for treating skin and subcutaneous tissue with energy such as ultrasound energy are disclosed. In various embodiments, ultrasound energy is applied at a region of interest to affect tissue by cutting, ablating, micro-ablating, coagulating, or otherwise affecting the subcutaneous tissue to conduct numerous procedures that are traditionally done invasively in a non-invasive manner. Methods of lifting sagging tissue are described.

The present disclosure describes an ultrasound imaging system configured to identify a scan line pattern for imaging an object or feature thereof. The system may include a controller that controls a probe for imaging a volume of a subject by transmitting and receiving ultrasound signals in accordance with a plurality of scan line patterns. One or more processors communicating with the probe may generate a plurality of image data sets based on the signals received at the probe, each data set corresponding to a discrete scan line pattern. These data sets are assessed for a target characteristic specific to the object targeted for imaging. One the data set that includes the target characteristic is identified, the one or more processors select the scan line pattern that corresponds the identified image data set. This scan line pattern may then be used for subsequent imaging of the volume to view the object.

A device and system for and methods of using an ultrasound probe housing containing ultrasound probes configured to produce images inside the body of a patient for procedures requiring needle or probe insertion. The ultrasound probe housing can be configured with a guide channel cut-out or aperture between the ambient side and body side of a patient. A needle guide assembly may be pivotally connect internal to the guide channel cut-out or aperture of the ultrasound probe housing at a pivot point such that during use the needle enters the patient through the needle guide assembly within the ultrasonic probe housing so that the needle can be visualized by the ultrasonic probes in real time. The ultrasound probe housing may also provide an adhesion or suction quality to the body side of the device to facilitate aspects of the invention.

An elastography device includes a probe with a single ultrasound transducer; or a plurality of ultrasound transducers, and a low frequency vibrator arranged to induce a displacement of said single ultrasound transducer or plurality of ultrasound transducers towards a tissue. The device is configured to emit a sequence of ultrasound pulses and to acquire echo signals received in response to track how elastic waves, induced by the displacement, travel in the tissue. The device is configured to generate, for one or more of the ultrasound pulses emitted a temporal offset upon emission, and/or a temporal offset upon reception, so that a difference thereof varies as a function of 2.d/.sub.Vus, where d is the displacement of the single transducer or plurality of ultrasound transducers, and where .sub.Vus is the speed of ultrasound in said tissue.

A hand-held ultrasound system includes integrated electronics within an ergonomic housing. The electronics includes control circuitry, beamforming and circuitry transducer drive circuitry. The electronics communicate with a host computer using an industry standard high speed serial bus. The ultrasonic imaging system is operable on a standard, commercially available, user computing device without specific hardware modifications, and is adapted to interface with an external application without modification to the ultrasonic imaging system to allow a user to gather ultrasonic data on a standard user computing device such as a PC, and employ the data so gathered via an independent external application without requiring a custom system, expensive hardware modifications, or system rebuilds. An integrated interface program allows such ultrasonic data to be invoked by a variety of such external applications having access to the integrated interface program via a standard, predetermined platform such as visual basic or c++.

A biomedical sensor is provided that includes a deformable body panel, a first ultrasonic transducer, a second ultrasonic transducer, and a displacement sensor. The first and second ultrasonic transducers are attached to, and the displacement sensor is in communication with, the deformable body panel. The biomedical sensor is disposable in at least one default configuration wherein the first and second ultrasonic transducers are disposed relative to one another in a known first spatial transducer configuration. The biomedical sensor is disposable in one or more deformed configurations wherein the first and second ultrasonic transducers are disposed relative to one another in a second spatial transducer configuration different than the first spatial transducer configuration. The at least one displacement sensor is configured to produce signal information indicative of a difference between the first and second spatial transducer configurations.

An ultrasound probe has an acoustic window (10) or lens (20) through which ultrasound is transmitted and received by a transducer array (30) located behind the lens or window inside a probe enclosure. The external, patient-contacting surface (24) of the acoustic lens or window is textured. The texturing of the surface of the lens or window better retains gel spread over the lens or window for an ultrasound procedure, reduces reverberation artifacts, and diminishes the appearance of scratches on the lens or window.

Provided is a device for measuring the amount of probe displacement using a change in amount of light, the device including: a sensor mounting unit having a sensor and configured to adjust a position so that a probe is provided at a position corresponding to the sensor; a handpiece fixing unit configured to fix a handpiece by means of a through-hole formed at a center of the handpiece fixing unit; and an impedance matching unit configured to generate acoustic impedance to the probe.

An ultrasound probe including an active thermal management system is disclosed. The active thermal management system may include a fluid chamber coupled to a transducer assembly of the ultrasound probe. The fluid chamber may include a coolant that may dissipate heat from the transducer assembly. The active thermal management system may further include a heat sink coupled to the fluid chamber and thermal management system. The heat sink may include fins that extend into the coolant. The coolant may be a liquid or a gas. The coolant may be circulated within the fluid chamber by a circulation device. The circulation device may be a pump, a fan, or an impeller. An ultrasound probe may further include a window that forms an enclosure over the lens of the transducer assembly. The enclosure may be fluidly coupled to the fluid chamber and filled with coolant to dissipate heat from the lens.

An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus includes: a hardware processor that determines a focal position of a push wave, and positions of observation points in a region of interest indicating an analysis target range within the subject, causes the ultrasonic probe to perform transmission of a push wave focusing on the focal position, and subsequent to the transmission, causes the ultrasonic probe to transmit a detection wave passing through the region of interest within the subject, and calculates amounts of displacement of tissue of the subject at the observation points on the basis of a reflected wave obtained by the ultrasonic probe in response to the transmission of the detection wave, calculates propagation speeds of the shear wave in the tissue of the subject with respect to the observation points on the basis of the amounts of displacement, and evaluates values of the propagation speeds calculated to create an evaluation result.