Transesophageal Phased Array for Imaging the Heart

A 3.5 MHz phased array has been developed for imaging the heart through the esophagus. The ultrasonic probe is fitted on the distal end of an Olympus gastroscope. Transesophageal images of the heart were obtained on ten patients. This paper describes the design and realization of the phased array and presents some clinical results obtained on patients.