Magnetic Ultrasound Catheter with Forward- and Side-Looking Imaging Modes

Intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) serves as an important imaging technique for the diagnosis of cardiovascular diseases (CVDs). Commercial IVUS catheters use either a side-looking rotating transducer or a circumferential transducer array to provide cross-sectional ultrasound (US) images. However, it cannot visualize the path ahead of the catheter, which is necessary for applications such as chronic total occlusion (CTO) angioplasty. This study proposes a concept dual-mode magnetic US catheter, mainly consisting of a magnetic component and two miniature high-frequency US transducers, which can perform both forward-looking sectorial scanning and side-looking circular scanning B-mode US imaging by remote magnetic actuation. The fabricated prototype catheter has an outer diameter of 1.8 mm. The center frequencies of the two transducers are both 30 MHz. Preliminary experiments are conducted to validate the effectiveness.