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.

[Problem] To provide an ultrasonic apparatus that enables one to find a factor that lowers reliability of a measurement value relating to elasticity of biological tissue. [Means for Solution] An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus comprises a control circuit executing: a measurement-value calculating function 535 of calculating a measurement value relating to elasticity of the biological tissue based on echo signals from ultrasonic detecting pulses; an index-value calculating function 536 of calculating an index value indicating a degree of reliability for the measurement value for each of a plurality of factors that deteriorate the reliability of the measurement value based on the echo signals from the ultrasonic detecting pulses; and a notifying function of notifying a factor corresponding to at least one index value for which the degree of reliability does not meet a required standard.

Using a patient's physiological parameters ascertained using standard intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) in combination with virtual histology (VH), these physiological parameters are evaluated to predict whether the patient's physiology has an increased risk of producing a Clinical Event or a Silent Clinical Event. In one embodiment the following three physiological parameters: the Plaque Burden; the Minimum Lumen Area; and whether a VH-TCFA or multiple VH-TCFAs are present are compared to target values and ranges. A concurrence of the values for the physiological parameters falling within the target ranges indicates that a patient's physiology has an increased risk of producing a Clinical Event or a Silent Clinical Event, respectively. In other embodiments, combinations of any two of the three physiological parameters listed above are compared to target values and ranges. A concurrence of the values for two of the physiological parameters falling within the target ranges indicates that a patient's physiology has an increased risk of producing a Clinical Event. In still other embodiments, any of the three physiological parameters listed above are compared to target values and ranges. Any of the values of the physiological parameters falling within the target ranges indicates that a patient's physiology has an increased risk of producing a Clinical Event.

The invention relates to a medical sensor system with a probe sheath with a sheath distal end configured for insertion through an insertion opening into a lumen of a patient. A pressure signal channel between the sheath ends contains a pressure sensor at the sheath distal end configured to measure pressure in the pressure signal channel and produce a corresponding pressure measurement signal. A sheath retraction mechanism portion of the probe sheath has: i. an extended sheath configuration wherein the sheath distal end extends through the insertion opening into the lumen and encloses the pressure measurement sensor in physical isolation from the lumen, and ii. a retracted sheath configuration wherein the sheath distal end is longitudinally retracted back from the lumen towards the insertion opening so as to expose at least a portion of the pressure measurement sensor to the lumen.

The invention is directed to method for ultrasound (US) imaging using an ultrasound system comprising a US probe (10), wherein the US probe (10) is configured to insonify an imaging region, receive echo signals, digitize the received echo signals and transfer the digitized radiofrequency (RF) data (14) to a data processing unit adapted to beamform the RF data (14). The method comprises acquiring at least one scouting image (15) including an anatomical structure; selecting at least one region of interest (ROI) (16) within the scouting image (15), wherein the at least one ROI (16) includes a portion of the anatomical structure; setting a transmit (TX) scheme (46) and a receive (RX) scheme (48) for US imaging of the imaging region (18), in which the ROI (16) is insonified with different TX and RX settings than the imaging region (18) outside the ROI (16); and acquiring a plurality of US images (26) according to the TX and RX scheme. The US probe (10) is configured to transfer to the data processing unit only the received RF data (14) corresponding to a depth range of the at least one ROI (16) for at least some of the stipulated receive beams (24) reflected from the at least one ROI (16), and is configured to transfer the received RF data corresponding to the full depth of the imaging region (18) for at least some of the receive beams (24) reflected from the imaging region (18) outside the at least one ROI (16).

A system and a method for determining a relative position of an ultrasound transceiver with respect to an opening of an interventional device where the opening is within a lumen of the interventional device. Ultrasound transmissions from an ultrasound transceiver, capable of moving through at last part of the lumen and the opening are reflected off the wall or boundary of the lumen. The ultrasound transceiver may receive one or more 5 echoes of the ultrasound transmissions and generate a receive signal comprising the one or more echoes and transmit receive data comprising one or more characteristics of the echo to a data processor. The data processor is configured to identify from the receive data the one or more characteristics and determine a relative position of the ultrasound transceiver with respect to the opening based on the one or more characteristics. A transceiver may be part of 10 a retrofit device with which the interventional device may be equipped during an interventional procedure. After having determined the relative position, a location within a subject of the interventional device equipped with the retrofit device may be determined through tracking of the transceiver by an US imaging apparatus during the procedure.

Apparatuses, systems, and methods for preclinical ultrasound imaging of subjects are provided. In one aspect, the apparatus can include a platform on which a subject is positionable and at least one motion stage for controlling a spatial position of at least one ultrasound transducer relative to the platform in order to acquire ultrasound image data of the subject. Methods for preclinical ultrasound raster scanning of at least one organ or tissue in a subject are also provided, where the at least one organ or tissue is a heart.

An ultrasonic imaging method includes: controlling an ultrasonic probe to transmit ultrasonic waves to a biological tissue under examination and receive echo signals of the biological tissue under examination, the echo signals comprising one group of channel data; beam-forming the channel data by using a first beam-forming procedure to obtain beam-formed data of a first group of beam-forming points, and generating a first ultrasonic image of the biological tissue under examination based on the beam-formed data of the first group of beam-forming points; determining a region of interest based on the first ultrasonic image; beam-forming the channel data by using a second beam-forming procedure to obtain beam-formed data of a second group of beam-forming points; generating a second ultrasonic image of the region of interest based on the beam-formed data of the second group of beam-forming points; and displaying the first and second ultrasonic images in a fusion manner.

An ultrasonic imaging method includes: detecting an imaging setting for current ultrasonic imaging before ultrasonic imaging; determining a beam forming procedure corresponding to the imaging setting from a plurality of predetermined beam forming procedures; controlling an ultrasonic probe to transmit ultrasonic waves to a biological tissue under examination based on the imaging setting and obtain echo signals from the biological tissue under examination; beam-forming the echo signals by the determined beam forming procedure to generate beam-formed data; generating an ultrasonic image of the biological tissue under examination based on the beam-formed data.

An ultrasound diagnostic apparatus (1) includes a transmission and reception circuit (5) that causes a transducer array (2) to transmit an ultrasound beam toward the subject, and processes a reception signal output from the transducer array that has received an ultrasound echo from the subject to generate a sound ray signal; an image generation unit (6) that generates an ultrasound image on the basis of the generated sound ray signal; an image analysis unit (9) that detects the blood vessel and the insertion object by analyzing the generated ultrasound image; and a device control unit (13) that controls the transmission and reception circuit (5) such that a frame rate at which the ultrasound image is generated is adjusted, on the basis of a relative positional relationship between the detected blood vessel and the detected insertion object.