Patent ID: 8556815

Claim:
An ultrasound system for use in guiding medical interventions in a body, the ultrasound system comprising: an ultrasound transducer operable to receive ultrasound echo signals returning from a portion of the body; a fine elongate instrument adapted to be inserted in the body, the instrument defining a longitudinal axis, a position sensing system operable to monitor a spatial location and orientation of the instrument and a spatial location and orientation of the ultrasound transducer; a controller communicatively coupled to the ultrasound transducer and the position sensing system; and a display communicatively coupled to the controller; wherein the controller is configured to: generate a two dimensional ultrasound image based on the ultrasound echo signals; display the ultrasound image on the display, the ultrasound image depicting a plane of the portion of the body; determine a location of the portion of the body depicted in the ultrasound image based on the spatial location and orientation of the ultrasound transducer; determine a first distance between a first line in the plane and a first point along the longitudinal axis at which the longitudinal axis traverses the first line; determine a second distance between a second line in the plane and a second point along the longitudinal axis at which the longitudinal axis traverses the second line; generate on the display a first needle-image alignment indicator having a first coded appearance characteristic indicative of the first distance; and generate on the display a second needle-image alignment indicator having a second coded appearance characteristic indicative of the second distance.