Ultrasound imaging and backscatter system and method

A method of characterizing one or more tissue components of a scanned object in a patient, the method comprising:

• positioning a catheter having a Piezoelectric Micromachined Ultrasonic Transducer Intracardiac echocardiographic (pMUT ICE) catheter adjacent to a region of interest of the scanned object;
• receiving reflected signals from the pMUT ICE catheter;
• scanning the region of interest;
• determining one or more signal properties of the region of interest from the reflected signals;
• associating the one or more signal properties to predetermined signal properties of tissue components of an object similar to the scanned object, wherein the predetermined signal properties comprise classification conditions stored in a data structure;
• and
• identifying the one or more tissue components including tissue scaring, lesion assessment and measurement of tissue thickness.

A system comprising:

• a catheter including a Piezoelectric Micromachined Ultrasonic Transducer Intracardiac echocardiographic (pMUT ICE) catheter configured to scan a region of interest;
• a computing device in communication with the catheter, and configured to:
• receive reflected signals from the pMUT ICE catheter;
• determine one or more signal properties of the region of interest from the reflected signals;
• associate the one or more signal properties to predetermined signal properties of one or more tissue components of an object similar to the scanned object, wherein the pre-determined signal properties comprise classification conditions stored in a data structure;
• and
• identify the one or more tissue components including tissue scaring, lesion assessment and measurement of tissue thickness.

An intracardiac echocardiographic (ICE) imaging and backscatter system comprising:

• an ultrasonic catheter having a longitudinal axis, a proximal end, and a distal end;
• a micro-electromechanical (MEMS) based Piezoelectric Micromachined Ultrasonic Transducer (pMUT) array disposed within the distal end of the ultrasonic catheter, wherein the MEMS based pMUT array comprises a substrate and a plurality of MEMS based pMUT array elements arranged on the substrate;
• and
• an electronic flex cable connected at one end to a handle assembly and at other end to the MEMS based pMUT array, wherein the electronic flex cable is in communication with at least one signal trace, and is configured to:
• direct each of the plurality of MEMS based pMUT array elements, via the at least one signal trace, to transmit and receive, with respect to heart, ultrasound beams;
• receive at least one signal from the plurality of MEMS based pMUT array elements based on transmitting and receiving at least one ultrasound beam of the ultrasound beams;
• and
• construct at least one image of at least a portion of the heart based on the at least one signal.