In a transcatheter treatment support technique using a combination of a guide wire equipped with a photoacoustic technique and an ultrasonic imaging device, the ultrasonic imaging device estimates a front edge position of the guide wire using a difference between arrival times of photoacoustic waves arriving at an array of elements configuring an ultrasonic probe or a change of an image of the photoacoustic generation source, which depends on a distance of the photoacoustic generation source from an imaging region, and grasps a relationship between an imaging position and the front edge position of the guide wire using the estimation result. This enables visually grasping a relationship between a region (imaging region) from which an image is able to be obtained with reflective waves from a biological body with use of the ultrasonic probe and an insertion object present outside the region, particularly, the front edge of the guide wire.

Described are methods and systems and system components useful for percutaneously delivering or retrieving vascular implant devices, such as filters, utilizing intravenous ultrasound (IVUS) imaging alone or in combination with external (e.g. transabdominal) ultrasound or other imaging technology. Implants deliverable by such systems, such as vena cava or other vascular filters, can have two or more echogenic markers spaced at such a distance that they are separately discernible by IVUS and/or external ultrasound imaging.

A feedback system for instrument guidance includes a feedback guidance module (122) configured to detect an instrument in a realtime image and generate feedback under a detected event for aligning or guiding the instrument. An image generation module (148) is configured to generate a projected guideline in the image. The feedback guidance module is configured to generate at least one of audio and visual feedback to provide guidance to a user in positioning the instrument in the area of interest relative to the projected guideline in realtime.

Described are methods and systems and system components useful for percutaneously delivering or retrieving vascular implant devices, such as filters, utilizing intravenous ultrasound (IVUS) imaging alone or in combination with external (e.g. transabdominal) ultrasound or other imaging technology. Implants deliverable by such systems, such as vena cava or other vascular filters, can have two or more echogenic markers spaced at such a distance that they are separately discernible by IVUS and/or external ultrasound imaging.

A catheter system can include a tubular body, and at least one of a targeting system coupled to the tubular body, an expandable member, or a fluid injection port. A method of identifying a bifurcation can include inserting a catheter system into a first vessel, positioning the catheter system at a first location, expanding an expandable member to occlude the first vessel, delivering contrast material so the contrast material pooling proximate to the expandable member, and reviewing a shape of the contrast material in the first vessel under fluoroscopy.

Described are methods and systems and system components useful for percutaneously delivering or retrieving vascular implant devices, such as filters, utilizing intravenous ultrasound (IVUS) imaging alone or in combination with external (e.g. transabdominal) ultrasound or other imaging technology. Implants deliverable by such systems, such as vena cava or other vascular filters, can have two or more echogenic markers spaced at such a distance that they are separately discernible by IVUS and/or external ultrasound imaging.

The present disclosure provides for an imaging probe with a rotatable core which allows for rotating imaging assembly that is larger in diameter than the lumen in which the rotatable core resides, as well as methods to construct said probes. The imaging probes are generally elongate flexible imaging catheters for use in cardiovascular procedures. The ability to have a smaller lumen to hold the rotatable core simplifies the inclusion of other functional components to the catheter and may improve the quality of the images produced.