An ultrasound device comprises a transducer arrangement and an acoustically transmissive window over said arrangement, said window comprising an elastomer layer having conductive particles dispersed in the elastomer, the elastomer layer having a pressure-sensitive conductivity. An electroactive material actuator is provided for biasing the transducer arrangement towards the transmissive window. The electroactive material actuator is controlled in dependence on a measured pressure-sensitive conductivity. In this way, a feedback system is provided for controlling a contact pressure. The device can be implemented with low cost and with low power consumption.

The present invention relates to devices and methods for measuring vascular deficiency using Doppler ultrasound detection. Embodiments can be used to monitor the condition of surgical tissue flaps or other conditions in which obstruction in the vascular system can impact patient health. The systems can include a Doppler ultrasound probe, a color probe, a temperature probe, and/or other suitable probes to measure blood volume and perfusion status of a tissue region. The systems and methods can be used to monitor flaps after flap transplant surgeries. The systems and methods can automatedly assess tissue condition and alert the patient or medical staff if the condition has fallen below a threshold indicating occlusion of a blood vessel. One or more additional sensors can be integrated into a probe to measure vascular conditions and a metric can be computed based on sensed data.

An ultrasound probe includes, on a surface of a casing, a center indication part configured to indicate an approximate center position of at least one side of an ultrasound transmission/reception side surface of the piezoelectric element, and the center indication part is formed such that two or more tangents intersect each other at at least a first intersection and a second intersection on a virtual center line extending in an ultrasound transmission/reception direction of the piezoelectric element and passing through the approximate center position, and that the tangents intersecting each other have gradients of opposite signs.

A system and method for ultrasound treatment of skin laxity are provided. Systems and methods can include ultrasound imaging of the region of interest for localization of the treatment area, delivering ultrasound energy at a depth and pattern to achieve the desired therapeutic effects, and/or monitoring the treatment area to assess the results and/or provide feedback. In an embodiment, a treatment system and method can be configured for producing arrays of sub-millimeter and larger zones of thermal ablation to treat the epidermal, superficial dermal, mid-dermal or deep dermal components of tissue.

In an ultrasound probe according to an embodiment, a first ultrasound transducer array scans a first scanned plane. A second ultrasound transducer array engages with the first ultrasound transducer array, is provided so as to intersect the first ultrasound transducer array, and scans a second scanned plane different from the first scanned plane. A probe main body is provided with the first ultrasound transducer array and the second ultrasound transducer array, has an opening in a position where the first and the second ultrasound transducer arrays intersect each other, and has a through hole extending to the opening. An engaging part that causes the first and the second ultrasound transducer arrays to engage with each other is configured in such a manner that the angle at which the first and the second ultrasound transducer arrays intersect each other is changeable.

Systems and methods for non-invasive fat reduction can include targeting a region of interest below a surface of skin, which contains fat and delivering ultrasound energy to the region of interest. The ultrasound energy generates a thermal lesion with said ultrasound energy on a fat cell. The lesion can create an opening in the surface of the fat cell, which allows the draining of a fluid out of the fat cell and through the opening. In addition, by applying ultrasound energy to fat cells to increase the temperature to between 43 degrees and 49 degrees, cell apoptosis can be realized, thereby resulting in reduction of fat.

The present invention relates to transducer housing and a tool for opening and closing the transducer housing (20). The transducer housing comprises a base body (22) and a lid (24) which are releasable coupled with a rotational coupling (26). The lid (24) comprises a contact area (42) formed to be engaged by a driving pin (64) of the tool (10) in order to open or close the transducer housing (20) upon a rotation of the lid (24) relative to the base body (22). The tool (10) comprises a base portion (12) and an upper portion (14) that are coupleable wherein the upper portion can be rotated relative to the base portion. When coupled the upper portion and base portion may enclose the transducer housing such that upon a rotational movement of the upper portion (14) relative to the base portion (12) the driving pin (64) of the upper portion (14) engages with the contact area (42) of the lid (24) causing the lid (24) of the transducer housing (20) to move relative to the base body (22) of the transducer housing (20) resulting in an opening or closing of the transducer housing.

A transducer probe is presented. The transducer probe includes a housing having a probe surface at a first end. Further, the transducer probe includes an acoustic array having an array aperture, wherein the acoustic array is disposed adjacent the probe surface of the housing, and wherein the acoustic array is configured to transmit ultrasound signals towards a target volume. Also, the transducer probe includes a flex interconnect configured to electrically couple the acoustic array to at least one electronic unit. Furthermore, the transducer probe includes an electrical standoff disposed between the acoustic array and the flex interconnect to reduce a footprint of the transducer probe to a first value, wherein the first value is proximate to a lateral size of the array aperture.

A surgical system and method are provided that is configured to effect substituting a high resolution image created pre-surgery for a lower resolution image created in real time during surgery and simulating the real time position of the surgical site.

In one embodiment, apparatus for facilitating ultrasound-assisted needle placement for drug delivery includes an ultrasound probe cover adapted to receive an ultrasound probe, the cover comprising a first wall and a needle guide associated with the first wall, the needle guide comprising an element adapted to guide a needle into a patient adjacent the cover.