Patent ID: 8449466

Claim:
A system for locating a medical device in vivo, the system comprising: an ultrasound scanner having a scan head and being configured to operate in a 3D Doppler mode; an elongated medical device having a distal end configured to be inserted in vivo, wherein the distal end comprises at least one cross-sectional segment having a different density as compared to adjacent cross-sectional segments; and a first piezoelectric vibratory element coupled to the medical device configured to induce vibrations in the distal end, wherein the distal end vibrates at a different frequency than the adjacent cross-sectional segments of different density, wherein when the scan head is positioned over the distal end inserted in vivo to obtain scan data of a tissue volume, the ultrasound scanner is configured to generate 3D Doppler data in the form of a plurality of slices from the scan data and to identify a location of the distal end within the slices based upon localized data within one of the slices meeting predetermined criteria.