A method for diagnosing a joint condition includes in one embodiment: creating a 3d model of the patient specific bone; registering the patient's bone with the bone model; tracking the motion of the patient specific bone through a range of motion; selecting a database including empirical mathematical descriptions of the motion of a plurality actual bones through ranges of motion; and comparing the motion of the patient specific bone to the database.

Systems, devices, and methods are disclosed for acquiring and providing information about orthopedic features of a body using acoustic energy. In some aspects, an acoustic orthopedic tracking system includes portable acoustic transducers to obtain orthopedic position information for feeding the information to an orthopedic surgical system for surgical operations.

A multi-modality cancer screening and diagnosis system is provided that allows cancer screening and diagnosis of a patient using at least two different and sequential three-dimensional imaging techniques without patient repositioning. The system includes a first three-dimensional image acquisition device, a second three-dimensional image acquisition device having a probe with a transmitter mounted thereon, and a positioning paddle for positioning and immobilizing an object to be imaged during the cancer screening and diagnosis procedure. The positioning paddle is designed to facilitate visualization of the breast in both three-dimensional modalities without movement of the patient, and preferably is designed to position the patient with comfort during a diagnosis procedure which uses both imaging modalities.

A system for providing navigational guidance to a sonographer acquiring images is disclosed. The system may provide haptic feedback to the sonographer. The haptic feedback may be provided through an ultrasonic probe or a separate device. Haptic feedback may include vibrations or other sensations provided to the sonographer. The system may analyze acquired images and determine the location of acquisition and compare it to a desired image and a location for obtaining the desired image. The system may calculate the location for obtaining the desired image based, at least in part, on the acquired image. The system may then provide the haptic feedback to guide the sonographer to move the ultrasonic probe to the location to acquire the desired image.

Provided is an ultrasound imaging apparatus including: an ultrasound probe including a transducer module including an ultrasound transducer array, a driving device configured to rotate the transducer module, a magnet configured to rotate as a result of rotation of the transducer module, and a position sensor configured to output one of a first signal and a second signal on the basis of a change in magnetic flux density according to rotation of the magnet; and a controller configured to determine a first time for which the first signal is output as the transducer module rotates in a first direction, control the driving device to switch the rotating direction of the transduce module from the first direction to a second direction at a first switching time point at which an output signal is switched from the first signal to the second signal, control the driving device to switch the rotating direction of the transducer module one or more times during a time corresponding to the first time with respect to a second switching time point at which the output signal is switched from the second signal to the first signal after the first switching time point, determine a second time for which the first signal is output after the second switching time point, and determine a backlash value on the basis of a difference value between the first time and the second time.

A method and an apparatus for determining a three-dimensional directedness-determined motion are provided, including a forward-backward directedness, characterizing the motion of a movable ultrasound probe (10) during acquisition of an ultrasound image of a volume portion (2) by the ultrasound probe. The method comprises determining, by a machine-learning module (50), a motion indicator (60) indicating a three-dimensional motion between the ultrasound image frames (22); and determining, by a directedness-determining system (56), a directedness indicator (66) of the three-dimensional motion between the ultrasound image frames (22). The method further comprises determining a directedness-determined motion indicator (96) indicating the three-dimensional directedness-determined motion, including a determined the forward-backward directedness of the motion, between the ultrasound image frames (22) from the motion indicator (60) and the directedness indicator (66).

An ultrasound imaging system with an inertial tracking sensor rigidly fixed to an ultrasound probe. In a first embodiment, a real-time pose estimation unit enhances image based tracking using the inertial data stream to calculate out-of-plane angles of rotation and determine an out-of-plane translation by iteratively selecting planes with the estimated out-of-plane rotations with varying out-of-plane offset, computing the differences between sub-plane distances computed by speckle analysis and the selected plane minimizing for the root mean square of the differences for all selected planes.

In another embodiment, the real-time pose estimation unit enhances inertial tracking using the ultrasound image data stream to estimate an in-plane rotation angle; and substituting the in-plane rotation angle for an angle of rotation estimated using the inertial data stream.

Systems, devices, and methods are provided to provide workflow assistance to an operator during a medical imaging procedure, such as an ultrasound evaluation of a body vessel of a subject. A sensor such as a gyroscope may be integrated in an external ultrasound probe. Workflow assistance may be provided to position the ultrasound probe to make accurate flow measurements of fluid within the vessel, such as by coupling color flow information with gyroscope angles. The system may also be used to create a vessel map.

Disclosed herein is a medical system (100, 300, 500) comprising: a memory (110) storing machine executable instructions, at least one set of predetermined coordinates (124), and a position identifying algorithm (122). The position identifying algorithm is configured for outputting a set of current coordinates (128) for each of the at least one set of predetermined coordinates in response to receiving a current image descriptive of an object (306, 310). The execution of machine executable instructions (120) causes a computational system (104) to repeatedly receive (200) a current image (126) from a camera system (304). The execution of machine executable instructions (120) causes a computational system (104) to perform the following for the current image: receive (202) the set of current coordinates for each of the at least one set of predetermined coordinates in response to inputting the current image into the position identifying algorithm; calculate (204) a positional difference (130) between the at least one set of predetermined coordinates and its set of current coordinates; calculate (206) a one-dimensional value (134) from positional difference using an objective function; and provide (208) a one-dimensional position indicator (136, 314, 600, 602, 608, 800, 900, 1002) for each of and controlled by each one-dimensional value in real time using a user interface (108, 308, 416, 418).

An ultrasound diagnostic apparatus has: an image acquiring unit that transmits/receives an ultrasound beam from an ultrasound probe to acquire an ultrasound image; a part probability calculating unit that calculates, for the ultrasound image acquired in accordance with a first measurement method, a probability that a part included in the ultrasound image is a specific part from at least one of an orientation angle of the ultrasound probe or an analysis result of the ultrasound image; and a measurement method changing unit that changes, when the probability is greater than or equal to a threshold value, the first measurement method to a second measurement method for identifying the part for which the probability has been calculated, in which an ultrasound image is further acquired by using the second measurement method.