Method of and imaging ultrasound system for determining the position of a catheter
First Claim
1. A method of determining a position of a catheter in an ultrasound image acquired by means of an ultrasound transducer, comprising the steps of:
- providing the catheter with at least one ultrasound receiver that detects a reception of ultrasound scanning signals transmitted by the ultrasound transducer, acquiring a three-dimensional ultrasound image, displaying the three-dimensional ultrasound image, determining a distance between the ultrasound transducer and the ultrasound receiver on the catheter from a measured transit time of the scanning signals, and calculating a position in space of the ultrasound receiver on the catheter.
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Abstract
An imaging ultrasound system is provided with an ultrasound transducer and an image processing unit for the acquisition of a three-dimensional ultrasound image of the body of a patient, and a catheter for carrying out a therapeutic or diagnostic intervention in the body of the patient. The catheter accommodates, in addition to the customary instruments necessary to carry out its task, three ultrasound receivers that are mounted at a distance from one another on the tip of the catheter and are capable of detecting the arrival of scan signals of the ultrasound transducer. The distance between the ultrasound transducer and the receivers can be calculated from the transit time of the scan signals. The receivers can thus be localized in space. Localization enables notably the selection of, for example, the plane from the three-dimensional ultrasound data that contains all three receivers of the catheter. The tip of the catheter can thus be automatically tracked and displayed on a monitor at all times without manual displacement of the ultrasound transducer being necessary.
139 Citations
11 Claims
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1. A method of determining a position of a catheter in an ultrasound image acquired by means of an ultrasound transducer, comprising the steps of:
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providing the catheter with at least one ultrasound receiver that detects a reception of ultrasound scanning signals transmitted by the ultrasound transducer, acquiring a three-dimensional ultrasound image, displaying the three-dimensional ultrasound image, determining a distance between the ultrasound transducer and the ultrasound receiver on the catheter from a measured transit time of the scanning signals, and calculating a position in space of the ultrasound receiver on the catheter. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
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8. An imaging ultrasound system for the imaging of a part of a body, which system includes:
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an ultrasound transducer provided with at least one transmission unit for transmitting ultrasound scan signals and with at least one receiving unit for receiving echoes of the ultrasound scan signals;
an image processing unit coupled to the ultrasound transducer and arranged to calculate an image of the part of the body from the ultrasound scan signals provided by the ultrasound transducer;
at least one catheter provided with at least one ultrasound receiver that is coupled to the image processing unit, wherein the image processing unit determines a distance between the at least one transmission unit of the ultrasound transducer and the at least one ultrasound receiver on the at least one catheter from a transit time of the scan signals provided by the ultrasound transducer. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11)
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Specification