Display of catheter tip with beam direction for ultrasound system

Abstract

A medical imaging system for imaging a patient's body includes a catheter having a position sensor and an ultrasonic imaging sensor wherein the position sensor transmits electrical signals indicative of positional information of a portion of the catheter in a patient's body and the ultrasonic imaging sensor transmits ultrasonic energy at a target in the patient's body, receives ultrasonic echoes reflected from the target in the patient's body and transmits signals relating to the ultrasonic echoes reflected from the target in the patient's body. A positioning processor is operatively connected to the catheter for determining positional information of the portion of the catheter based on the electrical signals transmitted by the position sensor. The system also includes a display and an image processor operatively connected to the catheter, the positioning processor and the display. The image processor displays on the display a catheter icon in a same orientation as an orientation of the portion of the catheter in the patient's body based on positional information derived from the position sensor. The image processor also generates an ultrasonic image of the target based on the signals transmitted by the ultrasonic sensor and depicts in real-time the generated ultrasound image on a display in a same orientation as the orientation of the portion of the catheter in the patient's body based on positional information derived from the position sensor.