A method and system for providing ultrasound treatment to a tissue that contains a lower part of dermis and proximal protrusions of fat lobuli into the dermis. An embodiment delivers ultrasound energy to the region creating a thermal injury and coagulating the proximal protrusions of fat lobuli, thereby eliminating the fat protrusions into the dermis. An embodiment can also include ultrasound imaging configurations using the same or a separate probe before, after or during the treatment. In addition various therapeutic levels of ultrasound can be used to increase the speed at which fat metabolizes. Additionally the mechanical action of ultrasound physically breaks fat cell clusters and stretches the fibrous bonds. Mechanical action will also enhance lymphatic drainage, stimulating the evacuation of fat decay products.

A method for locating a plurality of elements comprising a flexible ultrasound phased array. The method includes constructing a matrix of traveltimes by iteratively transmitting a signal from one element of the plurality and receiving the signal at each of the other elements of the plurality. Traveltimes are derived from each received signal and arrayed in a matrix. Relative positions of the first element of the plurality and the last element of the plurality are established and the locations of the remaining elements of the plurality are iteratively modeled to fit the matrix of traveltimes.

The present disclosure relates to extraction of probe motion estimates from acquired ultrasound image frames. Such image-extracted probe motion data can be used alone or in combination with sensed motion data, such as acquired using an inertial measurement unit (IMU). In certain implementations, the image-extracted probe motion can be used to provide or maintain anatomic context in a sequence of images or to provide guidance to a user.

A controller and method for imaging an area of interest of a region within an object using a transoesophageal echo (TEE) probe of a TEE ultrasound acquisition system are 5 provided. The controller includes a memory that stores instructions, and a processor that executes the instructions. When executed by the processor, the instructions cause the controller to perform a process including causing a transthoracic echo (TTE) probe of a TTE ultrasound acquisition system to emit an ultrasound beam to a selected area of interest of a region within the object; switching the TEE probe to a listening mode, enabling the 10 TEE probe detect and receive the ultrasound beam emitted by the TTE probe; and causing a robot to steer the TEE probe to an imaging location in the object using the detected TTE ultrasound beam. The TEE probe shows the area of interest using ultrasound images acquired from the imaging location.

An ultrasound imaging system includes a beamformer configured to generate 2-D images offset from each other based on sweeping motion of a transducer array during a 3-D ultrasound imaging procedure producing volumetric data. The ultrasound imaging system further includes a 2-D mask processor configured to generate a 2-D mask image for each of the 2-D images. Each of the 2-D mask images includes a contour of a predetermined structure of interest in the volumetric data. The ultrasound imaging system further includes a 3-D mask processor configured to segment the structure from the 3-D image with the 2-D mask images, generating a 3-D segmentation.

A main image includes a tomographic image and a reference image as ultrasonic images. A sub-image includes a site-of-interest map and a site-of-interest list. During execution of ultrasonic inspection, each time a new site of interest is identified, a site-of-interest symbol is added to the site-of-interest map and a site-of-interest record is added to the site-of-interest list. The position of the site-of-interest symbol is determined according to the position of a probe mark.

An internal probe device for insertion into the body of a patient, comprises an elongate body with a plurality of EAP actuators mounted at the surface of the body. The EAP actuators are made to vibrate so that their position becomes visible in a Doppler ultrasound image. The use of EAP actuators to provide vibrations enables individual locations to be identified. In particular, the movement of the EAP actuator may be largely isolated from the main body of the probe. Furthermore, EAP actuators can be thin, lightweight and have a small form factor suitable for application to or within the surface of a probe, such as a catheter, needle or endoscope.

The ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to the present embodiment includes processing circuitry. The processing circuitry is configured to: acquire multiple position data associated with respective multiple two-dimensional image data of ultrasonic related to multiple cross sections; smooth the acquired multiple position data; and arrange the multiple two-dimensional image data in accordance with the smoothed multiple position data to generate volume data.

An ultrasound imaging apparatus (20) is disclosed, comprising a data interface (30) configured to receive a plurality of different ultrasound data sets (26, 28) resulting from an ultrasound scan of an object (18) in different viewing directions. The ultrasound imaging apparatus further comprises a segmentation unit (32) for segmenting anatomical structures of the object in the different ultrasound data sets and for providing segmentation data of the anatomical structures, and a reference determining unit (34) for determining a spatial reference (48, 50, 52, 54) for the different ultrasound data sets on the basis of the segmentation data. A confidence determining unit (40) is included for determining confidence values (56) for different regions of the received ultrasound data on the basis of the spatial reference.

A method and system for providing ultrasound treatment to a tissue that contains a lower part of dermis and proximal protrusions of fat lobuli into the dermis. An embodiment delivers ultrasound energy to the region creating a thermal injury and coagulating the proximal protrusions of fat lobuli, thereby eliminating the fat protrusions into the dermis. An embodiment can also include ultrasound imaging configurations using the same or a separate probe before, after or during the treatment. In addition various therapeutic levels of ultrasound can be used to increase the speed at which fat metabolizes. Additionally the mechanical action of ultrasound physically breaks fat cell clusters and stretches the fibrous bonds. Mechanical action will also enhance lymphatic drainage, stimulating the evacuation of fat decay products.