Patent ID: 8414492

Claim:
A catheter comprising: an outer catheter body having a plurality of surface electrodes on a distal portion thereof, the outer catheter body defining a first lumen; an inner catheter body containing an ultrasound transducer array adapted to transmit and receive ultrasound waves and positioned within the first lumen of the outer catheter body; and an acoustic couplant between the inner and outer catheter bodies so as to provide an acoustic path for ultrasound transmitted and received by the array, wherein the array defines an image field and is constructed and arranged to provide ultrasound imaging information of tissue near the surface electrodes; and wherein a plurality of the surface electrodes are positioned so as to be in the image field of the array at the same time, and wherein at least two of the electrodes in the image field have substantially different thicknesses such that at least one of the electrodes in the image field is substantially opaque to the ultrasound waves and at least one of the electrodes in the image field is substantially transparent to the ultrasound waves.