Provided herein is a catheter assembly including an imaging device for identifying an anatomical structure. The catheter assembly includes a patient cannula configured to be drawn along a catheter or guide wire; a transseptal puncture catheter at least partially enclosed within the patient cannula; and an imaging catheter. The imaging catheter includes a transducer configured to emit an energy beam capable of reflecting from an anatomical structure and to detect energy reflected from the structure. The catheter assembly also includes a transmitter for conveying a signal representative of the detected energy from the transducer to a signal processor for obtaining information about the structure. An imagining system and a method for identifying a predetermined transseptal puncture location on an atrial septum are also provided herein.

Improved acoustic tomography is provided using an array of transducer modules that surround the target, Each transducer module is a phased array of acoustic transducer elements that provides a steerable plane wave or steerable diverging wave excitation to the target. Tomographic reconstruction of the resulting data sets is substantially less computationally demanding than tomographic reconstruction of conventional acoustic tomography data sets, enabling image frame rates of 10 per second or better. This approach can be combined with dual modality imaging In cases where hardware limitations lead to undesirable gaps between the transducer modules, virtual receiver elements can be defined at locations between the transducer modules. By estimating signals that would be received at locations of the virtual receiver elements, the undesirable effects of these gaps can be reduced.

A biopsy device includes an elongated handle body having a proximal end portion and a distal end portion, a needle disposed within the handle body, first and second transducers, and a display. The needle is configured to move between a retracted position and a deployed position. The first and second ultrasound transducers are disposed within the distal end portion of the handle body. The first and second ultrasound transducers are angled relative to one another and define a space therebetween configured for passage of the needle.

A system includes ultrasound transducers configured to generate and direct ultrasound beams at a region within a portion of a subject's brain, sensors configured to measure a response from the portion of the subject's brain in response to one or more ultrasound beams, and an electronic controller in communication with the ultrasound transducers configured to generate, based on a measured response from the portion of the subject's brain in response to two or more ultrasound beams generated from two or more different angles, a model of the portion of the subject's brain, wherein the model has a higher resolution than a maximum resolution of a single ultrasound beam, and generate, based on the model of the portion of the subject's brain, stimulation parameters for the ultrasound transducers to generate and direct a stimulation ultrasound beam at the region within the portion of the subject's brain.

Provided is an ultrasound imaging apparatus for predicting fetal growth rate, including: an ultrasound probe configured to transmit ultrasound signals to a fetus and receive ultrasound echo signals reflected from the fetus; a user inputter configured to receive pregnancy information regarding a patient from a user; a communicator configured to receive, from a cloud server, fetal biometric data related to the pregnancy information regarding the patient from among fetal biometric data prestored and accumulated in the cloud server; and a controller configured to generate an ultrasound image of the fetus by using the ultrasound echo signals, measure a size of a body part of the fetus on the ultrasound image, and predict the fetal growth rate based on the measured size of the body part of the fetus and the fetal biometric data received from the cloud server.

Implementations described and claimed herein provide systems and methods for managing one or more patients. In one implementation, an imaging window is determined based on a location of a probe. A primary image cross-section for the imaging window is identified for the imaging window. At least one image is generated along the primary image cross-section using patient data captured using the probe. The at least one image is compared to an expected image contour scaffold of the primary image cross-section. The probe is commanded to fine-tune an imaging plane based on the comparison until the at least one image matches the expected image contour scaffold of the primary image cross-section.

An ultrasound diagnosis apparatus includes: a two-dimensional (2D) transducer array in which a plurality of transducers that transmit/receive an ultrasound signal to/from an object are arranged in two dimensions; an analog beamformer configured to perform analog beamforming in a first direction, and perform analog beamforming in a second direction perpendicular to the first direction on signals respectively received by the plurality of transducers; and a digital beamformer configured to perform digital beamforming on the signals that are analog-beamformed in the first direction, and perform digital beamforming on the signals that are analog-beamformed in the second direction.

A catheter includes a transmission unit that is disposed at the distal end of a tube having a lumen and has an ultrasonic wave transmitting function; a reception unit that is disposed at the distal end of the tube and has an ultrasonic wave receiving function; and an acoustic lens that is disposed so as to cover only the transmission unit among the transmission unit and the reception unit. Ultrasonic beams transmitted from the transmission unit are converged by passing through the acoustic lens, and a reflected wave reflected on biological tissue is received by the reception unit without passing through the acoustic lens. Since setting of the positions, number, and the like of the reception units is not bound by the position, size, and the like of the acoustic lens, the positions, number, and the like of the reception units can be appropriately set to improve ultrasonic reception efficiency.

A multi-user system for acquiring, generating and processing ultrasound images comprises: a plurality of ultrasound probes with a communication unit for transmitting corresponding data to one or more processing units also with a communication unit; display and/or user interface terminals with a communication unit for transmitting to and receiving data from said processing units and/or said probes; a communication network connecting together the communication units of said probes, display and/or user interface terminals and said processing units. Processing units are configured to receive scanning signals detected by said probes and process said signals to generate ultrasound images and optionally process said ultrasound images and to transmit said images and/or outputs of said processing to said display and/or user interface terminals. Probes and/or processing units are loaded programs with encoded instructions to receive data from each of said probes and to generate the corresponding images and/or to perform the corresponding processing.

In a dematerialized ultrasound system, i.e. comprising a probe for transmitting and receiving ultrasound signals and a generic processing hardware made of one or more distributed processing units, the functions relating to the processing steps for the generation and processing of the images are in the form of software programs that encode instructions for the aforementioned generic hardware which make it capable of executing said processing steps. In order to make the computational and data interchange burden less heavy between the units of the distributed architecture of the system and to make the distribution of processing steps more flexible between one or more of the components of the distributed system, the programs are created under form of applications included in containers managed by a container management engine.