System and method for tracking an invasive device using ultrasound position signals

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10507006-B2
Application number	US-201314141752-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 27, 2013
Priority date	Dec 27, 2013
Publication date	Dec 17, 2019
Grant date	Dec 17, 2019

Abstract

A system and method for tracking an invasive device includes a localization system configured to be externally attached to a patient. The localization system includes a transducer module including a plurality of transducer elements. The system and method includes an invasive device including at least one device transducer element. The invasive device is configured to either transmit ultrasound position signals to the transducer module or receive ultrasound position signals from the transducer module.

First claim

We claim:

1. A system for tracking an invasive device, the system comprising:
an ultrasound probe configured to be inserted into a patient's body, the ultrasound probe comprising an array including a plurality of transducer elements, wherein the array is configured both for acquiring ultrasound image data and for tracking a position of the ultrasound probe;
a display device;
a localization system comprising:
a substrate configured to be externally attached to the patient;
an ultrasound transducer module comprising at least one transducer element attached to the substrate, where the ultrasound transducer module is configured to communicate ultrasound signals with the array; and
a connector device electrically connected to the ultrasound transducer module; and

a processing unit in electronic communication with the ultrasound transducer module, the display device and the ultrasound probe, wherein the processor is configured to:
determine a position of the ultrasound probe based on the ultrasound signals communicated between the array and the at least one transducer element attached to the substrate;
generate an ultrasound image based on the ultrasound image data acquired by the array;
display the ultrasound image on the display device; and
display the position of the ultrasound probe on the display device based on the ultrasound signals communicated between the array and the at least one transducer element attached to the substrate.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the array is configured to transmit the ultrasound signals to the ultrasound transducer module.

3. The system of claim 2 , wherein the processing unit is configured to use the ultrasound signals both to generate the ultrasound image and to determine the position of the ultrasound probe.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein the ultrasound transducer module is configured to transmit the ultrasound signals to the array.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein the array is configured both to transmit a first subset of ultrasound signals to the ultrasound transducer module and to receive a second subset of the ultrasound signals from the ultrasound transducer module, and wherein the processing unit is configured to determine the position of the probe based both on the first subset of the ultrasound signals transmitted from the array to the ultrasound transducer module and on the second subset of the ultrasound signals transmitted from the ultrasound transducer module to the array.

6. The system of claim 1 , wherein the array is configured to transmit a second plurality of ultrasound signals to generate the ultrasound image data, where the second plurality of ultrasound signals is different than the ultrasound signals used to determine the position of the ultrasound probe.

7. The system of claim 6 , wherein the array is configured to acquire the ultrasound signals and the second plurality of ultrasound signals by interleaving the ultrasound signals with the second plurality of ultrasound signals.

8. The system of claim 1 , wherein the substrate includes an adhesive backing configured to be attached to the patient.

9. The system of claim 1 , wherein the localization system further comprises a fiducial marker that is configured to be detectable by a non-ultrasound modality.

10. The system of claim 9 , wherein the processing unit is further configured to receive a non-ultrasound image, and wherein the processing unit is configured to display the position of the ultrasound probe with respect to the non-ultrasound image on the display device.

11. The system of claim 1 , wherein the transducer module comprises a plurality of transducer elements.

12. A method of tracking a position of a probe, the method comprising:
attaching a first plurality of transducer elements to the outside of a patient:
positioning an ultrasound probe inside the patient where the ultrasound probe comprises an array including a second plurality of transducer elements;
communicating ultrasound signals between the array and the first plurality of transducer elements;
determining with a processing unit a position of the ultrasound probe based on the ultrasound signals communicated between the array and the first plurality of transducer elements, wherein the array is further configured to acquire ultrasound image data with the ultrasound signals; and
displaying the position of the ultrasound probe on a display device.

13. The method of claim 12 , further comprising receiving a non-ultrasound image of the patient, registering the position of the ultrasound probe to the non-ultrasound image, and wherein displaying the position of the ultrasound probe comprises displaying the position of the ultrasound probe with respect to the non-ultrasound image.

14. The method of claim 13 , wherein registering the position of the ultrasound probe to the non-ultrasound image comprises using a position of a fiducial marker that is attached to an ultrasound transducer module with at least one of the first plurality of transducer elements.

15. The method of claim 13 , wherein the non-ultrasound image comprises an X-ray image or a CT image.

16. A method of tracking a position of a probe, the method comprising:
attaching a first plurality of transducer elements to the outside of a patient:
positioning an ultrasound probe inside the patient, where the ultrasound probe comprises an array including a second plurality of transducer elements,
communicating ultrasound signals between the array and the first plurality of transducer elements;
determining with a processing unit a position of the ultrasound probe based on the ultrasound signals communicated between the array and the first plurality of transducer elements; and
displaying the position of the ultrasound probe on a display device,
wherein the array is configured to acquire ultrasound image data with a second plurality of ultrasound signals that are different than the ultrasound signals.

17. The method of claim 12 , wherein the first plurality of transducer elements are attached to one or more skin patches and each of the one or more skin patches is attached to the patient via an adhesive backing.

18. The method of claim 16 , further comprising receiving a non-ultrasound image of the patient, registering the position of the ultrasound probe to the non-ultrasound image.

19. The method of claim 18 , wherein registering the position of the ultrasound probe to the non-ultrasound image comprises using a position of a fiducial marker that is attached to an ultrasound transducer module with at least one of the first plurality of transducer elements.

20. The method of claim 18 , wherein the non-ultrasound image comprises an X-ray image or a CT image.

21. The method of claim 16 , wherein the first plurality of transducer elements are attached to one or more skin patches and each of the one or more skin patches is attached to the patient via an adhesive backing.

Assignees

• Gen Electric

Inventors

• Samset Eigil
• Haugen Geir Ultveit

Classifications

• A61B8/4494

  characterised by the arrangement of the transducer elements · CPC title

• A61B2090/3784

  both receiver and transmitter being in the instrument or receiver being also transmitter · CPC title

• A61B34/20

  Surgical navigation systems; Devices for tracking or guiding surgical instruments, e.g. for frameless stereotaxis · CPC title

• A61B2090/363

  Use of fiducial points · CPC title

• A61B8/4227

  characterised by straps, belts, cuffs or braces · CPC title