Systems for visualizing interior tissue regions including an actuator to move imaging element

A system for visualizing heart tissue comprising

• a catheter tube having a distal region for deployment within a heart,
• an imaging element on the distal region for visualizing surrounding endocardial tissue, a support body carried by the distal region of the catheter tube beyond the imaging element to contact endocardial tissue away from the imaging element,
• a sensing element to sense a selected electrical event in surrounding myocardial tissue,
• an actuator to move the imaging element, and
• a controller coupled to the sensing element and the actuator to regulate movement of the imaging element in response to the selected electrical event,
• wherein the sensing element senses an electrogram having a QRS, and
• wherein the controller regulates movement of the imaging element to the QRS of the electrogram.

A system for visualizing heart tissue comprising

• a catheter tube having a distal region for deployment within a heart,
• an imaging element on the distal region for visualizing surrounding endocardial tissue, a support body carried by the distal region of the catheter tube beyond the imaging element to contact endocardial tissue away from the imaging element,
• a sensing element to sense a selected electrical event in surrounding myocardial tissue,
• an actuator to move the imaging element, and
• a controller coupled to the sensing element and the actuator to regulate movement of the imaging element in response to the selected electrical event,
• wherein the controller regulates movement of the imaging element to timing of electrogram activation.

A system for visualizing heart tissue comprising

• an imaging element comprising an ultrasound transducer for visualizing tissue,
• an actuator to move the imaging element,
• a component connectable to a source of media including echoluscient contrast material to inject the media into blood conveyed to heart tissue, and
• an element coupled to the imaging element enabling analysis of perfusion patterns of the media in myocardial tissue visualized by the imaging element to identify infarcted tissue.

A system for visualizing heart tissue comprising

• a catheter tube having a distal region for deployment within a heart,
• an imaging element comprising an ultrasound transducer on the distal region for visualizing surrounding endocardial tissue,
• an actuator to move the imaging element,
• a component connectable to a source of media including echoluscient contrast material to inject the media into blood conveyed to heart tissue, and
• an element enabling analysis of perfusion patterns of the media in myocardial tissue visualized by the imaging element to identify infarcted tissue.

A system for visualizing heart tissue comprising

• a catheter tube having a distal region for deployment within a heart,
• an imaging element comprising an ultrasound transducer on the distal region for visualizing surrounding endocardial tissue,
• a component connectable to a source of media including echoluscient contrast material to inject the media into blood conveyed to heart tissue,
• an element enabling analysis of perfusion patterns of the media in myocardial tissue visualized by the imaging element to identify infarcted tissue,
• an actuator to move the imaging element,
• a controller coupled to the actuator to regulate movement of the imagine element,
• a sensing element to sense a selected electrical event in surrounding myocardial tissue, and
• where the controller is coupled to the sensing element to regulate movement of the imaging element to the selected electrical event,
• wherein the sensing element sense an electrogram having a QRS, and
• wherein the controller regulates movement of the imaging element to the QRS of the electrogram.

A system for visualizing heart tissue comprising

• a catheter tube having a distal region for deployment within a heart,
• an imaging element comprising an ultrasound transducer on the distal region for visualizing surrounding endocardial tissue,
• a component connectable to a source of media including echoluscient contrast material to inject the media into blood conveyed to heart tissue,
• an element enabling analysis of perfusion patterns of the media in myocardial tissue visualized by the imaging element to identify infarcted tissue,
• an actuator to move the imaging element,
• a controller coupled to the actuator to regulate movement of the imaging element,
• a sensing element to sense a selected electrical event in surrounding myocardial tissue, and
• where the controller is coupled to the sensing element to regulate movement of the imaging element to the selected electrical event,
• wherein the controller regulates movement of the imaging element to timing of electrogram activation.

A system for visualizing tissue comprising

• a catheter tube having a distal region for deployment within a tissue region,
• an imaging element comprising an ultrasound transducer on the distal region for visualizing surrounding tissue,
• a support body carried by the distal region of the catheter tube beyond the imaging element to contact surrounding tissue away from the imaging element,
• a component connectable to a source of media including echoluscient contrast material to inject the media into blood conveyed to surrounding tissue, and
• an element enabling analysis of perfusion patterns of the media in tissue visualized by the imaging element to characterize tissue morphology.