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Intravascular ultrasound imaging apparatus and method

  • US 6,592,520 B1
  • Filed: 07/31/2001
  • Issued: 07/15/2003
  • Est. Priority Date: 07/31/2001
  • Status: Expired due to Term
First Claim
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1. In an ultrasound system for imaging biological tissue, including an array of ultrasound transducers connected to a transmit beamformer and a receive beamformer constructed to acquire an ultrasound image of a selected tissue region, an intravascular catheter comprising:

  • a steerable guide sheath including a distal sheath part and a proximal sheath part constructed for insertion into a blood vessel, said distal sheath part including an articulation region constructed to assume a selected orientation;

    an imaging core including a distal core part, located within said distal sheath part, and a proximal core part located within said proximal sheath part and being constructed for rotational motion inside said guide sheath, said imaging core including said ultrasound transducer array disposed longitudinally on said distal core part;

    a positioning device constructed to control said selected orientation of said articulation region and thereby orient said ultrasound transducer array relative to the tissue region;

    said ultrasound transducer array constructed to detect ultrasound data over an image sector defined by an azimuthal angular range; and

    a rotation device constructed to rotationally displace, over an elevation angular range, said ultrasound transducer array about the apex of said image sector.

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