In one embodiment a system includes a ultrasound probe to capture 2D ultrasonic images of a body part of a living subject, a process to generate a 3D anatomical map of the body part, the 3D anatomical map and the 2D ultrasonic images being registered with a 3D coordinate space, add a 3D indication of an anatomical structure to the 3D anatomical map, render to a display the 3D anatomical map including the 3D indication of the anatomical structure, and render to the display a given one of the 2D ultrasonic images with a 2D indication of the anatomical structure on the given 2D ultrasonic image responsively to the 3D indication of the anatomical structure.

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.

The present disclosure describes ultrasound imaging systems and methods, which may enable the automatic identification of an image plane in a pre-operative volume corresponding to a real-time image of a moving region of interest. An example method includes receiving real-time ultrasound image data from a probe associated with a position-tracking sensor, generating real-time images based on the real-time ultrasound data and deriving a motion model from the real-time ultrasound image data. The method may further include automatically identifying an image plane in a pre-operative data set to correspond to the real-time ultrasound image by correcting for motion-induced misalignment between the real-time data and the pre-operative data.

A sensing unit for use in-body comprises a variable impedance circuit for connection to the distal end of a transmission line and reflecting a carrier signal received from the transmission line. The variable impedance circuit comprises a variable impedance component having an impedance which varies non-linearly with applied voltage, a sensor for generating a voltage in response to a stimulus and a voltage bias system for creating a voltage bias for the variable impedance component. The voltage bias sets the operation point of the variable impedance component, such that the voltage changes from the sensor change the impedance of the variable impedance component non-linearly.

An ultrasound device (10) includes a probe (12) including a tube (14) sized for insertion into a patient and an ultrasound transducer (18) disposed at a distal end (16) of the tube. A camera (20) is mounted at the distal end of the tube in a fixed spatial relationship to the ultrasound transducer. At least one electronic processor (28) is programmed to: control the ultrasound transducer and the camera to acquire ultrasound images (19) and camera images (21) respectively while the ultrasound transducer is disposed in vivo inside the patient; and construct a keyframe (36) representative of an in vivo position of the ultrasound transducer including at least ultrasound image features (38) extracted from at least one of the ultrasound images acquired at the in vivo position of the ultrasound transducer and camera image features (40) extracted from one of the camera images acquired at the in vivo position of the ultrasound transducer.

An intraoperative ultrasound imaging system and method capable of using ultrasound imaging to safely place a surgical access instrument (e.g. guide wire, dilator, cannula, etc.) through a tissue (e.g., muscle, fat, brain, liver, lung, etc.) without damaging nearby neurovascular structure is described herein. The intraoperative ultrasound system includes an ultrasound probe assembly configured for emitting and receiving ultrasound waves and a computer system including a processor and a display unit. Once the probe is in position, ultrasound imaging is performed wherein the computer receives RF data from the probe and causes a B-mode image of the visible anatomical structures (e.g. muscle, bone, etc.) to be displayed on the display unit.

A medical system includes an ultrasound probe configured for insertion into an organ of a body, and a processor. The probe includes a two-dimensional (2D) ultrasound transducer array, and a sensor configured to output signals indicative of a position, direction and orientation of the 2D ultrasound transducer array inside the organ. The processor is configured to (a) using the signals output by the sensor, register multiple ultrasound images of a tissue region, acquired over a given time duration by the 2D ultrasound transducer array, with one another, (b) estimate, based on the ultrasound images acquired over the given time duration, three-dimensional displacements as a function of time for one or more locations in the tissue region, (c) estimate respective mechanical strains of the one or more locations in the tissue region, based on the three-dimensional displacements, and (d) present a time-dependent rendering of the mechanical strains to a user.

A medical system includes an ultrasound probe for insertion into an organ of a body and a processor. The ultrasound probe includes (i) a two-dimensional (2D) ultrasound transducer array, and (ii) a sensor configured to output signals indicative of a position, direction and orientation of the 2D ultrasound transducer array inside the organ. The processor is configured to (a) using the signals output by the sensor, register multiple ultrasound images of a tissue region, acquired over a given time duration by the 2D ultrasound transducer array, with one another, and (b) generate a map of the tissue region indicative of respective amounts of motion of tissue locations in the tissue region.

A medical system includes an ultrasound probe and a processor. The ultrasound probe is configured for insertion into an organ of a body and includes (i) a two-dimensional (2D) ultrasound transducer array, and (ii) a sensor configured to output signals indicative of a position and orientation of the 2D ultrasound transducer array inside the organ. The processor is configured to (a) using the signals output by the sensor, register multiple ultrasound image sections, acquired by the 2D ultrasound transducer array, with one another, (b) produce a union of the multiple registered ultrasound image sections, to form a rendering of at least a portion of the organ, and (c) present the rendering to a user.

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.