Multiplanar ultrasonic vascular sensor assembly, system and methods employing same, apparatus for movably affixing a sensor assembly to a body and associated methods

A method of cannulating a blood vessel within a patient's body, comprising:

• substantially simultaneously ultrasonically locating an orientation and a center of a target blood vessel within the patient's body by manually disposing a sensor assembly thereover;
• determining a location for inserting a needle into the target blood vessel using a bi-directional, linear grid system comprising value indicia superimposed over and aligned with respective mutually perpendicular, linear transducer arrays of the sensor assembly by correlating the value indicia of the grid system of the sensor assembly with images of the target blood vessel rendered on an electronic display in association with a grid system corresponding to the grid system of the sensor assembly, rendered on the electronic display and using grid markings having value indicia equivalent to the value of the sensor assembly and indicative of positions along the respective mutually perpendicular, linear transducer arrays;
• and
• inserting a needle into the target vessel at the determined location.

A method of cannulating a blood vessel within a patient's body, comprising:

• locating an orientation of a target blood vessel using a first linear, ultrasonic transducer array;
• locating a center of the target blood vessel using a second linear, ultrasonic transducer array disposed perpendicular to the first linear, ultrasonic transducer array;
• and
• indicating a location for inserting a needle into the target blood vessel proximate an intersection of the first and second linear, ultrasonic transducer arrays by correlating grid markings of a grid system associated with the first and second linear, ultrasonic transducer arrays with grid markings associated with an electronic image of the target blood vessel within the patient's body produced responsive to outputs of the first and second linear, ultrasonic transducer arrays, wherein the grid markings each comprise value indicia representative of positions along the first and second linear, ultrasonic transducer arrays on the patient's body and the grid markings associated with the image of the target blood vessel produced by the first and second linear, ultrasonic transducer displays have associated therewith value indicia on the electronic image correlated with like value indicia of the grid markings of the grid system associated with the first and second linear, ultrasonic transducer arrays.

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

• a sensor assembly including only two linear, multi-element, mutually perpendicular and substantially coplanar ultrasonic transducers, the sensor assembly being configured for placement on the body portion with the elements of the sensor assembly aimed thereat and bearing a grid system comprising longitudinal and transverse grid markings on an exterior surface thereof, wherein the longitudinal and transverse grid markings are superimposed over and aligned with the two linear multi-element, mutually perpendicular and substantially coplanar ultrasonic transducers and comprise value indicia representative of positions along their representative of the two linear multi-element, mutually perpendicular and substantially coplanar ultrasonic transducers;
• a beamformer operably coupled to the two linear, multi-element, mutually perpendicular ultrasonic transducers;
• a dual B-mode digital scan converter operably coupled to the beamformer for converting signals therefrom to images respectively depicting a transverse sectional view and a longitudinal sectional view of one or more vessels in a portion of the patient's body interior of the sensor assembly and a location and orientation of a needle associated with a needle guide and inserted in the portion of the patient's body adjacent the one or more vessels;
• a host computer operably coupled to the dual B-mode digital scan converter;
• and
• a display device operably coupled to the host computer and configured to simultaneously display the images respectively depicting transverse sectional and longitudinal sectional views of the one or more vessels and the location and orientation of the needle in relation to displayed longitudinal grid markings and transverse grid markings each comprising value indicia correlated respectively to the value indicia of the longitudinal grid markings and transverse grid markings of the grid system on the exterior surface of the cover to enable orientation and positioning of the sensor assembly and insertion of the needle into a target vessel by using the displayed images in conjunction with the displayed grid markings.