An ultrasound system including: a scanner module including a housing including a first fastener element, an ultrasound transducer, a rotational actuator, and an electronics module; and a positioner module including a second fastener element; operable between a first mode, wherein the first and second fastener elements cooperatively couple the scanner module to the positioner module, and a second mode, wherein the scanner module and positioner modules are separate. An ultrasound system including: a housing including a handle region and a membrane; an ultrasound transducer; a reservoir; a rotational actuator; and an electronics module.

An ultrasound transducer unit (12), e.g. probe, is configured with a friction guiding function. The transducer unit (12) comprises a vibration generating means (20) at a tissue contact area, and has means for sensing a sliding direction of the transducer unit across a tissue surface (42) at which the contact area is incident. The tissue surface may be an external skin surface or an internal tissue surface, e.g. in case of a catheter. A control means is operable to control the vibration of the vibration generator to adjust a level of friction at the tissue contact area. This is used by the control means to implement a friction guiding function for guiding a user in sliding the unit across the incident surface, e.g. toward a target location (44), based on controlling the friction level responsive to sensed sliding direction, for instance providing lower friction when sliding is in a target direction, while leaving other directions with relative higher frictional resistance.

An imaging system comprises an ultrasounds probe (102) including a housing (108) with a probe orientation marker (116) disposed on the housing. The imaging system further comprises a display (132). The imaging system further comprises a console (104), electrically interfaced with the probe and the display, that includes a controller (128). The controller is configured to visually present an ultrasound image, in electronic format and via the display, with an image orientation marker visually displayed superimposed over the image and selectively located with respect to the displayed image based on the location of the probe orientation marker on the housing.

Systems and methods for dynamically managing power consumption in an ultrasound device are provided herein. A transducer in an ultrasound device may have transmit and receive elements for respectively transmitting and receiving ultrasound signals. In at least one embodiment, the method includes sensing a motion of the transducer by a motion sensor that is coupled to the transducer. An amount of power consumed by the ultrasound device is then reduced, based on the sensed motion of the transducer. Reducing an amount of power consumption may include adjusting one or more operational parameters of the ultrasound device, such as but not limited to reducing the display frame rate, the receive aperture, or the transmit amplitude, or by decoupling power to one or more components of the ultrasound device. Alternatively or in addition, power consumption may be reduced based on signals received from a capacitive sensor and/or a patient contact sensor.

Intravascular systems can include a catheter having a proximal end, a distal end, a sensor located at the distal end configured to provide sensor information representative of one or more intravascular properties of a patient, and a plurality of magnetic domains A magnetic pickup can be configured to output a pickup signal based on the magnetic field at the magnetic pickup produced by the plurality of magnetic domains. An intravascular processing engine can be in communication with the catheter sensor and the magnetic pickup. The intravascular processing engine can receive sensor information from the sensor and a position signal representative of the pickup signal. The intravascular processing engine can be used to determine position information related to the position of the catheter sensor and combine the received sensor information and corresponding determined position information.

Systems can include at least one friction wheel configured to engage a catheter of an intravascular system such that proximal or distal motion of the catheter causes the friction wheel to rotate. A position sensor can include a reference element and a movable element, wherein the movable element is configured to move relative to the reference element in response to rotation of the at least one friction wheel. The position sensor can provide a position signal representative of the rotation of the at least one friction wheel. An intravascular processing engine can receive both the position signal from the position sensor and an intravascular signal from the catheter.

Apparatus and methods are described that include ultrasound imaging devices, which may operate in a transmissive ultrasound imaging modality, and which may be used to detect properties of interest of a subject such as index of refraction, density and/or speed of sound. Devices suitable for performing high intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU), as well as HIFU and ultrasound imaging, are also described.

A system is disclosed for determining a position and a change in the position of an anatomical structure. The system utilizes a surgical navigation system and a substrate that is capable of being removably mounted to an outer surface of a patient's body. The substrate includes a sensor that is tracked by the surgical navigation system and a positional device that determines the position of an anatomical structure relative to the sensor. The concatenation of the position of the sensor and the relative position of the anatomical structure allows a global position of the anatomical structure to be determined by a computer system and displayed to the user.

Insertable imaging devices and use methods thereof in minimally invasive medical procedures. Some insertable imaging devices are introduced and removed from an access port without disturbing or risking damage to internal tissue. Some insertable imaging devices are integrated with an access port, thereby allowing imaging of internal tissues within a vicinity of the access port, while enabling manipulation of surgical tools in the surgical field of interest. Some insertable imaging devices are integrated into an imaging sleeve that is insertable into an access port. Some insertable imaging devices perform imaging within an access port, wherein the imaging is based on one or more imaging modalities, including, but are not limited to, magnetic resonance imaging, ultrasound, optical imaging, such as hyperspectral imaging and optical coherence tomography, and electrical conductive measurements.

The present invention discloses a probe robot device, comprising: a probe housing; a probe transducer connected to the probe housing and configured to collect a lesion; and a probe connecting line connected to the probe transducer and configured to transmit the lesion information collected by the probe transducer; wherein the probe robot device further comprises a probe movement mechanism, and the probe movement mechanism is capable of controlling the probe transducer to respectively perform rotational movement around at least two angled axes within a preset angle range. According to the probe robot device in the present invention, the probe transducer can perform the rotation and positioning movements in multiple directions, so that the information of the scanned and examined lesion is more comprehensive, and the operation is simpler and more convenient.