ULTRASONIC MEDICAL SYSTEM AND ASSOCIATED METHOD

A medical apparatus includes an ultrasonic probe having an ultrasonic wave emitter and an ultrasonic wave sensor. The probe is movable along a skin surface of a patient in pressure-wave transmitting contact with that skin surface. An ultrasonic frequency generator is operatively connected to the wave emitter, while an ultrasonic-wave preprocessor is operatively connected to the sensor for periodically processing reflected ultrasonic pressure waves detected by the sensor. The wave preprocessor is programmed to derive preliminary structural data pertaining to the internal tissues of the patient, where the data consists essentially of separate sets of data, each set corresponding to a respective location of the probe relative to the patient. A memory is operatively connected to the preprocessor for storing the sets of data. A main processor is in turn operatively connected to the memory and/or the preprocessor for analyzing the preliminary structural data of the stored sets of data to determine three-dimensional shapes of the internal tissues of the patient. The main processor includes or is connected to a video signal generator which produces a video signal encoding a relatively high-resolution video image of the three-dimensional shapes. This video signal generator is connected to a video monitor for displaying the video image.