APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR ULTRASONIC IMAGING WITH POSITIONING OF TRANSDUCER ARRAY

摘要

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To image various locations of a patient without moving a probe housing within the patient by repositioning a transducer array within the probe.;SOLUTION: The probe (10) has the transducer array (17) which can be repositioned or rotated relative to the housing (14) in order to image the locations that cannot be viewed from a central scan plane (54) of the probe. A stepper motor (37) may be used to reposition the transducer array. A drive gear train inclusive of a gear (21) coupled to the motor (28) by a belt (33) can be provided for such positioning. Any of the 2D forms of imaging may be performed at any of the planes within a range of the 3D volume swept by a probe such as a 3D probe or 3D real-time probe in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.;COPYRIGHT: (C)2003,JPO