CATHETERS WITH LATERALLY DEPLOYABLE ELEMENTS AND LINEAR ULTRASOUND ARRAYS

摘要

Catheters having laterally deployable elements (e.g., penetrators, needles, probes, electrodes, wires, etc.) and linear imaging arrays useable for imaging of such laterally deployable elements. These catheters are useable to perform or facilitate a wide variety of diagnostic and therapeutic functions, including but not limited to the delivery of drugs and other substances, accessing specific target locations within a subject's body, delivering diagnostic or therapeutic treatments to specific target locations within a subject's body, creating penetration tracts or passageways within a subject's body, etc.