A medical device and its method of use includes a catheter, at least two electromagnetic sensing coils located within the distal tip of the catheter, and a multi-element planar ultrasound transducer array located within the distal tip of the catheter and configured to transmit and receive ultrasonic energy. The device also includes an imaging system coupled to the ultrasound transducer and is used for creating an image of tissue in a first target plane that extends orthogonally from the catheter body. The medical device also includes a backscatter evaluation system for use in receiving and evaluating the acoustic spectral characteristics of tissues within a second target area within the first target plane.

According to one embodiment, an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus includes an ultrasonic probe, a memory, and processing circuitry. The ultrasonic probe includes ultrasonic transducers. The processing circuitry measures first reflected wave signals generated by the ultrasonic probe at a first time point. The processing circuitry stores information concerning the first reflected wave signals in the memory. The processing circuitry measures second reflected wave signals generated by the ultrasonic probe at a second time point. The processing circuitry performs correction to suppress variations between the second reflected wave signals respectively generated by the ultrasonic transducers based on the information concerning the first and second reflected wave signals.

Sensors coupled to a vehicle are calibrated, optionally using a dynamic scene with sensor targets around a motorized turntable that rotates the vehicle to different orientations. One vehicle sensor captures a representation of one feature of a sensor target, while another vehicle sensor captures a representation of a different feature of the sensor target, the two features of the sensor target having known relative positioning on the target. The vehicle generates a transformation that maps the captured representations of the two features to positions around the vehicle based on the known relative positioning of the two features on the target.

Aspects of the technology described herein relate to detecting degrade ultrasound imaging frame rate. Some embodiments include receiving ultrasound data from the ultrasound device, generating ultrasound images from the ultrasound data, taking one or more measurements of ultrasound imaging frame rate based on the ultrasound images, comparing the one or more measurements of ultrasound imaging frame rate to an reference ultrasound imaging frame rate value, and based on a result of comparing the one or more measurements of ultrasound imaging frame rate to the reference ultrasound imaging frame rate value, providing a notification and/or disabling an ultrasound imaging preset and/or an ultrasound imaging mode with which the ultrasound device was configured.

A system and method for dynamically adjusting imaging parameters during an ultrasound scan is provided. The method includes acquiring regular ultrasound image frames based on a first set of imaging parameters and displaying the regular frames at a display system. The method includes intermittently acquiring a test ultrasound image frame based on a second set of imaging parameters having at least one imaging parameter that is different from the first set of imaging parameters. The test frame is not displayed. The method includes determining a regular frame image quality of at least one of the regular frames and a test frame image quality of the test frame. The method includes applying, in response to determining the test frame image quality exceeds the regular frame image quality, the second set of imaging parameters to acquire additional regular frames and displaying the additional regular frames at the display system.

Aspects of the technology described herein relate to built-in self-testing (BIST) of circuitry (e.g., a pulser or receive circuitry) and/or transducers in an ultrasound device. A BIST circuit may include a transconductance amplifier coupled between a pulser and receive circuitry, a capacitor network coupled between a pulser and receive circuitry, and/or a current source couplable to the input terminal of receive circuitry to which a transducer is also couplable. The collapse voltages of transducers may be characterized using BIST circuitry, and a bias voltage may be applied to the membranes of the transducers based at least in part on their collapse voltages. The capacitances of transducers may also be measured using BIST circuitry and a notification may be generated based on the sets of measurements.

An ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system for shear wave measurement transmits push pulses into tissue for the generation of shear waves. Characteristics of the shear waves such as their velocity of passage through the tissue are measured to assess properties such as tissue stiffness. The measurements are compensated for effects of background motion by sampling echo signals from the tissue at different times and comparing the samples to detect the presence of relative motion between the ultrasound probe and the region of interest where shear waves are detected. Sensed background motion is used to adjust measured shear wave characteristics.

An ultrasound system uses image recognition to characterize the anatomy being imaged, then considers an identified anatomical characteristic when setting the level or limit of acoustic output of an ultrasound probe. Alternatively, instead of automatically setting the acoustic output level or limit, the system can alert the clinician that a change in operating levels or conditions would be prudent for the present exam. In these ways, the clinician is able to maximize the signal-to-noise level in the images for clearer, more images while maintaining a safe level of acoustic output for patient safety.

Provided is an ultrasound imaging system configured to generate data of an ultrasound image based on an echo signal received by each of a plurality of elements included in an ultrasound transducer, the ultrasound imaging system includes: a determining circuit configured to determine, using a signal corresponding to the echo signal obtained by receiving from each of the plurality of elements, concerning the elements, whether a decrease in reception sensitivity occurs; and a control circuit configured to cause, based on a position of an element where the determining circuit determines that the decrease in the reception sensitivity occurs, a display to display at least one of display data indicating an image region where sensitivity decreases in the ultrasound image and information for informing that a sensitivity decreased element in which a decrease in reception sensitivity occurs is present.

An object of the invention is to provide a user with information that serves as a material for determining whether an image generated by processing including a neural network is valid. A reception signal output by an ultrasonic probe that has received an ultrasonic wave from a subject is received, and an ultrasonic image is generated based on the reception signal. A trained neural network receives the reception signal or the ultrasonic image, and outputs an estimated reception signal or an estimated ultrasonic image. A validity information generation unit generates information indicating validity of the estimated reception signal or the estimated ultrasonic image by using one or more of the reception signal, the ultrasonic image, the estimated reception signal, the estimated ultrasonic image, and output of an intermediate layer of the neural network.