Patent ID: 7927288

Claim:
A system for performing a fine needle aspiration biopsy, the system comprising an analysis unit and a fine needle aspiration (FNA) assembly, the analysis unit operative to re from the FNA assembly a signal indicating a property of a tissue in contact with the FNA assembly and to monitor the property of the tissue to detect changes in the tissue property, the changes indicating the position of the FNA assembly within the tissue, the analysis unit further operative to provide to an operator an indication of the position of the FNA assembly within the tissue to allow the operator to extract a biopsy from the tissue when the FNA assembly reaches a target tissue area, the FNA assembly comprising: a biopsy needle having a tube and a tip, the tip disposed at an end of the tube; a first piezoelectric sensor mounted to the biopsy needle at a location proximate to the tip, the piezoelectric sensor operable to sense the property of the tissue in contact with the tip; and a communication link communicatively coupling the first piezoelectric sensor to the analysis unit, and to communicate the signal indicating the property of the tissue from the first piezoelectric sensor to the analysis unit.