Method and apparatus for ultrasound guidance of needle biopsies
First Claim
1. A guide for a needle-like instrument comprising:
- an ultrasonic transducer that projects a planar ultrasound beam into an ultrasonic imaging plane beneath a surface;
a source of illumination, aligned with the ultrasonic transducer, the source of illumination projecting a light beam onto the surface;
the light beam being coplanar with the imaging plane; and
a viewing device, causing an image produced by the ultrasonic transducer to appear to be superimposed on the surface while the light beam is visible on the surface.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
An ultrasound scanning system having an ultrasound transducer (10) which provides ultrasound images (33), a computer to process the ultrasound information and to render the ultrasound image (33) correctly positioned and scaled for display on a flat panel monitor (29) which has a display size similar to the actual physical size of the ultrasound image (33). A half silvered mirror (30) redirects the image (33) so that the user (32) perceives the image (33) as if it occupied the actual physical location of the structures (34, 35) appearing in the image (33). An illumination (22) unit projects onto a patient (13) a line of light (3) that is within the imaging plane (4) projected by the ultrasound transducer (10) into the patient (13). Alternatively a video camera may be used to display a guide line (15) that is coplanar with the imaging plane (4). A mechanical mount (16) combines the transducer (10), monitor (29), mirror (30), and source of illumination (22) or video camera in a correct geometrical alignment.
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Citations
20 Claims
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1. A guide for a needle-like instrument comprising:
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an ultrasonic transducer that projects a planar ultrasound beam into an ultrasonic imaging plane beneath a surface;
a source of illumination, aligned with the ultrasonic transducer, the source of illumination projecting a light beam onto the surface;
the light beam being coplanar with the imaging plane; and
a viewing device, causing an image produced by the ultrasonic transducer to appear to be superimposed on the surface while the light beam is visible on the surface. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
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13. An apparatus for video assisted guidance of a needle-like instrument comprising:
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means for projecting a planar ultrasound beam into an ultrasonic imaging plane beneath a surface;
means for creating a video image of the surface;
means for inserting graphic markers on the video image of the surface, the graphic markers being substantially coplanar with the ultrasonic imaging plane; and
means for simultaneously viewing an image produced by the ultrasonic transducer with the video image of the surface. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16)
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17. A method of inserting an instrument into a body, comprising the steps of:
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projecting a planar ultrasound beam into an ultrasonic imaging plane into the body;
projecting a linear beam of light onto a surface of the body such that the beam of light resides within the imaging plane;
deriving image information from the ultrasound transducer;
superimposing derived ultrasonic image information onto a view of the linear beam appearing on the surface of the body so as to create a composite image; and
viewing the composite image while inserting instrument into the body. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19, 20)
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Specification