Patent ID: 11864950
Assignee: BK MEDICAL HOLDING COMPANY, INC.
Field: Medical technology (Instruments)
Classification: CPC A  G | IPC A

Claim 0:
1. A method, comprising:
identifying a region of interest in the 3-D image of a subject acquired prior to a procedure on the subject, wherein the region of interest includes an anatomical tissue of interest;
acquiring, with a transducer array of an ultrasound probe of an ultrasound imaging apparatus, a first ultrasound image of the subject during the procedure;
registering the 3-D image with the first ultrasound image by registering the region of interest in the 3-D image with the first ultrasound image to find the region of interest in an imaging plane of the first ultrasound image;
acquiring, with the transducer array of the ultrasound probe during the procedure and after acquiring the first ultrasound image, a second ultrasound image of the subject;
identifying the region of interest in an imaging plane of the second ultrasound image;
comparing a location of the region of interest in the imaging plane of the first ultrasound image and a location of the region of interest in the imaging plane of the second ultrasound image;
determining, based on a result of the comparing, a difference between the location of the region of interest in the imaging plane of the first ultrasound image and the location of the region of interest in the imaging plane of the second ultrasound image; and
steering, based on the difference, an instrument guide so that an instrument carried by the instrument guide is in an imaging plane of a third ultrasound image of the subject acquired with the transducer array of the ultrasound probe during the procedure.