Ultrasonic vascular imaging system and method of blood vessel cannulation

A system for use in cannulation of blood vessels in a body portion of a mammal, comprising:

• a sensor assembly including two linear, mutually perpendicular ultrasonic transducers, each comprising at least one element and at least one ultrasonic Doppler transducer element, the sensor assembly being configured for placement on the body portion with transducer elements of the sensor assembly aimed thereat;
• a beamformer operably coupled to the two linear, mutually perpendicular ultrasonic transducers and the at least one ultrasonic Doppler transducer element;
• a dual B-mode digital scan converter operably coupled to the beamformer for converting signals therefrom to images respectively depicting a transverse sectional view of blood vessels in the body portion and a longitudinal sectional view of the blood vessels in the body portion;
• Doppler signal processing hardware operably coupled to the at least one ultrasonic Doppler transducer element and configured to convert a Doppler signal received therefrom into a color image indicative of at least one direction of blood flow in at least one of the blood vessels of the body portion;
• a host computer operably coupled to the Doppler signal processing hardware and the dual B-mode digital scan converter;
• and
• a display device operably coupled to the host computer and configured to display the transverse sectional and longitudinal sectional views substantially simultaneously with the color image indicative of at least one direction of blood flow.