Imaging guidewire with back and forth sweeping ultrasonic source

摘要

An imaging guidewire for imaging tissues from inside a patient's body cavity. The imaging guidewire includes an elongated main body portion and an end portion. The end portion has a housing near to the guidewire's distal end, an ultrasonic beam emitting assembly having a pivotable part, and a driver for producing a pivotal motion on the pivotable part. The housing has a portion that is acoustically transparent. The pivotable part is movable and is operatively connected to the housing. The pivotable part can either have on it a transducer for emitting ultrasound or a reflector for reflecting ultrasound. In either case, when the pivotable part pivots it sweeps ultrasonic energy over a selected angle. The driver is located near to the transducer such that all driving motions for driving the pivotal motion occur near the distal end of the imaging guidewire.