An intravascular medical device for characterizing a vascular occlusion is disclose The medical device may include an elongate shaft having a proximal end and a distal end and a tip coupled to the distal end of the shaft. An acoustic sensor may be coupled to the proximal end of the elongate shaft. The medical device may further include a signal processing system having a display screen and in communication with the acoustic sensor.

An imaging apparatus includes a transducer, a detecting device and a processor. The transducer includes an emitter and receiver configured to detect a property of an object being scanned at a scanning location. The detecting device is configured to detect a position of the transducer relative to the object being scanned. The processor is configured to obtain, from the transducer, scan information representative of the property when the transducer is positioned at a first position; obtain, form the detecting device, position information representative of the position of the transducer relative to the object being scanned when the transducer is disposed in the first position; determine a coordinate location from the position information; associate the coordinate location with the scan information; and cause the coordinate location associated with the scan information to be stored in a storage.

The present invention relates to an ultrasound calibration device comprising a body portion having at least one echogenic fiducial; a marker portion having at least one tracking marker which can be detected by a medical tracking system; and a hook-shaped mounting portion extending from the body portion.

The present invention also relates to a method for calibrating an ultrasound probe, comprising the steps of filling a container with a fluid, in particular a physiologic salt solution; placing an ultrasound calibration device in accordance with the invention into the container; comparing, with the aid of a medical navigation system, a calculated position of at least one fiducial with a determined position of the at least one fiducial which is determined using a tracked ultrasound probe.

Devices, systems, and methods for controlling an intravascular imaging device are provided. For example, in one embodiment a method includes communicating a control signal to an actuator of the intravascular imaging device to cause oscillation of an imaging element of the intravascular imaging device, wherein the intravascular imaging device further includes an acoustic marker; receiving imaging data from the imaging element of the intravascular imaging device; identifying the acoustic marker in the imaging data by determining a correlation between the imaging data and a template representative of the acoustic marker; adjusting an aspect of the control signal based on identifying the acoustic marker; and communicating the adjusted control signal to the actuator of the intravascular imaging device.

Methods and systems for monitoring a transducer array in an ultrasound probe are provided. One method includes acquiring ultrasound data using an ultrasound probe during an imaging mode of operation, wherein the ultrasound data includes echo information. The method further includes comparing the echo information from a plurality of transducer elements of a transducer array of the ultrasound probe during the imaging mode of operation, wherein the echo information is non-beamformed signal data. The method also includes determining non-uniformity information for the transducer array using the compared echo information during the imaging mode of operation.

An intervention system employs an optical shape sensing tool (32) (e.g., a brachytherapy needle having embedded optical fiber(s) and a grid (50, 90) for guiding an insertion of the optical shape sensing tool (32) into an anatomical region relative to a grid coordinate system. The intervention system further employs a registration controller (74) for reconstructing a segment or an entirety of a shape of the optical shape sensing tool (32) relative to a needle coordinate system, and for registering the needle coordinate system to the grid coordinate system as a function of a reconstructed segment/entire shape of the optical shape sensing tool (32) relative to the grid (50, 90) (i.e., reconstruction of a segment/entire shape of the OSS needle inserted into/through the grid serving as a basis for the grid/needle coordinate system registration).

The technology concerning improvement of resolution of an acoustic wave sensor having a hemispherical shape or the like is provided. An ultrasonic transducer unit includes an ultrasonic transducer having a plurality of ultrasonic transducer elements, and a probe casing configured to support a plurality of the ultrasonic transducers, and to have a concave portion facing a subject. The plurality of ultrasonic transducer elements is arranged on a same plane facing a center of curvature of the probe casing. The plurality of ultrasonic transducer elements is arranged in a rotationally symmetrical manner about a normal line connecting the center of curvature of the probe casing to a point on a plane of the ultrasonic transducer.

The present technology relates generally to receiving arrays to measure a characteristic of an acoustic beam and associated systems and methods. The receiving arrays can include elongated elements having at least one dimension, such as a length, that is larger than a width of an emitted acoustic beam and another dimension, such as a width, that is smaller than half of a characteristic wavelength of an ultrasound wave. The elongated elements can be configured to capture waveform measurements of the beam based on a characteristic of the emitted acoustic beam as the acoustic beam crosses a plane of the array, such as a transverse plane. The methods include measuring at least one characteristic of an ultrasound source using an array-based acoustic holography system and defining a measured hologram at the array surface based, at least in part, on the waveform measurements. The measured hologram can be processed to reconstruct a characteristic of the ultrasound source. The ultrasound source can be calibrated and/or re-calibrated based on the characteristic.

An ultrasonic imaging method and device (10) and a computer-readable storage medium. The ultrasonic imaging method comprises: transmitting ultrasonic waves to a uterine region of an object to be detected (S201); receiving ultrasonic echoes based on the ultrasonic waves reflected from the uterine region of said object, and acquiring ultrasonic echo signals on the basis of the ultrasonic echoes (S202); processing the ultrasonic echo signals to obtain three-dimensional data of the uterine region of said object (S203); identifying the endometrium from the three-dimensional data of the uterine region according to endometrium image characteristics of the uterine region to obtain position information of the identified endometrium (S204); according to the position information of the identified endometrium, imaging the cross section of the identified endometrium on the basis of the three-dimensional data to obtain an cross-sectional endometrium image; and displaying the cross-sectional endometrium image.

A patient monitor that acquires a vital sign through a measurement sensor, and that is to be connected to an external measurement apparatus for measuring another vital sign, includes a master clock that is disposed in the patient monitor, and that manages common time information, a first operating system that manages first time information, and a second operating system that manages second time information, and that transmits and receives data to and from the external measurement apparatus. When a predetermined event occurs, the first operating system reads the common time information from the master clock, and updates the first time information. When the predetermined event occurs, the second operating system reads the common time information from the master clock, updates the second time information, and notifies the external measurement apparatus of the updated second time information or the common time information.