Guidance of invasive medical devices by high resolution three dimensional ultrasonic imaging

• US 7,270,634 B2
• Filed: 02/17/2004
• Issued: 09/18/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 03/27/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Original Assignee: Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Inventors: Scampini, Steven, Savord, Bernard, Salgo, Ivan, Peszynski, Michael
• Primary Examiner(s): Jaworski; Francis J.
• Application Number:
  US10/780,443
• Publication Number:
  US 20040193042A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,309 Days
• Field of Search: 600/440, 600/441, 600/443, 600/447, 600/458, 128/916
• US Class Current: 600/447
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/061 Determining position of a probe within the body employing means separate from the probe, e.g. sensing internal probe position employing impedance electrodes on the surface of the body A61B1/00158 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/062 using magnetic field
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/063 using impedance measurements
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/065 Determining position of the probe employing exclusively positioning means located on or in the probe, e.g. using position sensors arranged on the probe
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/068 using impedance sensors
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/00 Diagnosis using ultrasonic, sonic or infrasonic waves imaging of objects using sonar G01S15/00
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/0833 involving detecting or locating foreign bodies or organic structures
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/0841 for locating instruments
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/483 involving the acquisition of a 3D volume of data
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 15/8993 Three dimensional imaging systems
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/52073 Production of cursor lines, markers or indicia by electronic means
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/52074 Composite displays, e.g. split-screen displays; Combination of multiple images or of images and alphanumeric tabular information
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/52085 Details related to the ultrasound signal acquisition, e.g. scan sequences control of medical diagnostic ultrasound devices A61B8/54
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/52095 using multiline receive beamforming
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 128/916 Ultrasound 3-D imaging

Abstract

A three dimensional ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system is operated to guide or observe the operation of an invasive medical device (30) in three dimensions. The appearance of the invasive device (30) in the three dimensional ultrasonic image is enhanced to be more readily observable by a clinician. The enhancement is produced by transmitting a greater ultrasonic beam density in a subvolumetric region including the invasive device (30) than in the surrounding portion of the volumetric region (120). The beam density may be uniformly high in the subvolumetric region and uniformly low in the surrounding region, or may taper from a relatively high beam density around the invasive device (30) to a minimum beam density at distances removed from the invasive device (30).

Claims

1. An ultrasonic surgical guidance imaging system which acts to guide the placement or observe the operation of an invasive medical device comprising:

an ultrasonic probe including an array transducer which steers ultrasonic beams over a volumetric surgical region (120) for image guidance of the placement or operation of an invasive medical device;

a detector responsive to the placement of an invasive medical device which acts to detect the location of the device in an image region;

a transmit beamformer coupled to the array transducer and responsive to the detected location of an invasive medical device which acts to control the array transducer to transmit a greater beam density in the sub-volumetric region in the vicinity of the location of the invasive medical device than the beam density in the volumetric region surrounding the sub-volumetric region;

a receive beamformer coupled to the array transducer and responsive to echo signals from array elements for the formation of beams of coherent echo signals;

an image processor responsive to the coherent echo signals for producing a three dimensional ultrasonic image of the volumetric surgical region and the sub-volumetric region in the vicinity of the invasive medical device; and

a display coupled to the image processor which displays the three dimensional ultrasonic image of the volumetric surgical region and the sub-volumetric region in the vicinity of the invasive medical device.

2. The ultrasonic surgical guidance imaging system of claim 1, wherein the transmitted beam density in a subvolumetric region in the vicinity of the invasive medical device is uniformly more dense than the beam density of the volumetric region surrounding the subvolumetric region.

3. The ultrasonic surgical guidance imaging system of claim 2, wherein the transmitted density is relatively high in the subvolumetric region in the vicinity of the invasive medical device, and is relatively low in regions of the volumetric region surrounding the subvolumetric region.

4. The ultrasonic surgical guidance imaging system of claim 1, wherein the transmitted beam density is relatively high in the volumetric region in the vicinity of the invasive medical device, is relatively less at a given distance from the invasive medical device, and exhibits one or more intermediate densities at distances less than the given distance.

5. The ultrasonic surgical guidance imaging system of claim 4, wherein the transmitted beam density progressively declines with increasing distances or angles from the invasive medical device.

6. The ultrasonic surgical guidance imaging system of claim 5, wherein the transmitted beam density progressively declines with increasing distances from the invasive medical device until a threshold minimum beam density is attained.

7. A method of ultrasonically guiding the placement or observing the operation of an invasive medical device comprising:

transmitting ultrasonic beams over a volumetric region which includes the location of an invasive medical device in a sub-volume of the volumetric region;

detecting the location of the sub-volume;

controlling the beam density of the ultrasonic beams transmitted in the volumetric region in response to the detecting to be relatively high in the sub-volume in the vicinity of the invasive medical device, and to be relatively low at distances of the volumetric region removed from the sub-volume;

receiving echo signals from the volumetric region and the sub-volume in response to the transmitted beams;

processing the received echoes to produce a three dimensional ultrasonic image of the volumetric region and the invasive medical device; and

displaying the three dimensional ultrasonic image of the volumetric surgical region and the subvolume including the invasive medical device.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein controlling the beam density further comprises controlling the beam density of the ultrasonic beams transmitted in a subvolumetric region surrounding the invasive medical device to be uniformly high in relation to the beam density in the volumetric region surrounding the subvolumetric region.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein controlling the beam density further comprises controlling the beam density to decline to progressively lesser beam densities with increasing distances from the invasive medical device.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein controlling the beam density further comprises controlling the beam density to decline to a minimum beam density level at distances from the invasive medical device.

11. A method of ultrasonically guiding the placement or observing the operation of an invasive medical device comprising:

transmitting ultrasonic beams over a volumetric region which includes the location of an invasive medical device;

identifying the location of the invasive medical device in the volumetric region;

controlling the beam density of the ultrasonic beams transmitted in the volumetric region in response to the identification of the location to be relatively high in the vicinity of the identified location of the invasive medical device, and to be relatively low at distances of the volumetric region removed from the invasive medical device;

receiving echo signals from the volumetric region in response to the transmitted beams;

processing the received echoes to produce a three dimensional ultrasonic image of the volumetric region and the invasive medical device;

displaying the three dimensional ultrasonic image of the volumetric surgical region and the invasive medical device.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein identifying the location of the invasive medical device comprises image processing ultrasonic echo data.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein identifying the location of the invasive medical device comprises receiving signals by the invasive medical device.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein identifying the location of the invasive medical device comprises receiving signals by the invasive medical device in the acoustic, radio frequency, or electromagnetic spectrum.

15. The method of claim 11, wherein identifying the location of the invasive medical device comprises transmitting signals from the invasive medical device.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein identifying the location of the invasive medical device comprises transmitting signals from the invasive medical device in the acoustic, radio frequency, or electromagnetic spectrum.

17. An ultrasonic surgical guidance imaging system which acts to guide the placement or observe the operation of an invasive medical device comprising:

an ultrasonic probe including an array transducer which steers ultrasonic beams over a volumetric surgical region for image guidance of the placement or operation of an invasive medical device;

a transmit beamformer coupled to the array transducer which acts to control the spatial beam density of the beams transmitted by the array transducer in the volumetric region;

a detector responsive to echo signals from the array transducer which acts to detect the location of the invasive medical device in the volumetric region;

a multiline receive beamformer coupled to the array transducer and responsive to the detection of the location of the invasive medical device and to echo signals from array elements for the production of different orders of received multilines in the vicinity of the invasive medical device and in the volumetric region at locations removed from the invasive medical device location;

an image processor responsive to the received multilines for producing a three dimensional ultrasonic image of the volumetric surgical region and the invasive medical device; and

a display coupled to the image processor which displays the three dimensional ultrasonic image of the volumetric surgical region and the invasive medical device.

18. The ultrasonic surgical guidance imaging system of claim 17, wherein the multiline receive beamformer acts to produce a greater number of received multilines for each transmit beam in the vicinity of the invasive medical device than the number of received multilines for each transmit beam at locations removed from the invasive medical device location.

19. The ultrasonic surgical guidance imaging system of claim 17, wherein the multiline receive beamformer acts to produce a lesser number of received multilines for each transmit beam in the vicinity of the invasive medical device than the number of received multilines for each transmit beam at locations removed from the invasive medical device location.

20. The ultrasonic surgical guidance imaging system of claim 17, wherein the transmit beamformer is responsive to the detection of the location of the invasive medical device and acts to control the array transducer to transmit a different beam density in the volumetric region in the vicinity of the invasive medical device than the beam density in the volumetric region at locations removed from the invasive medical device location.