JPS63260546A - Ultrasonic treatment apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] This bulletin contains application data before electronic filing, so abstract data is not recorded.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Industrial Application Fields] The present invention relates to an ultrasonic treatment device, specifically, an ultrasonic shock wave from outside the body that concentrates on a stone to be treated inside the body to carry out treatment such as lithotripsy. It relates to an ultrasonic treatment device.

[Prior Art] A stone destruction device as an example of an ultrasonic treatment device is well known (see Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 145131/1982), and generally,
A shock wave generator made by arranging a large number of ultrasonic transducers made of piezoelectric elements in a mosaic pattern on a spherical surface is brought into contact with the human body through a water bag filled with water, etc., to detect treatment targets present in the kidneys and liver. Ultrasonic shock waves from the plurality of ultrasonic transducers are concentrated on the object, the stone, to destroy the stone. Ultrasonic shock waves are generated by applying a pulsed voltage from a shock wave generation circuit to an ultrasonic vibrator. In addition, to confirm the location of the stone,
This was done using an X-ray or ultrasound observation device, and the shock waves from outside the body were manually focused on the stone.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] By the way, the conventional device does not automatically track the movement of stones, so there is also the possibility that stones may be moved due to breathing, etc. j < ,
The stone is easily removed from the focus of the shock wave, reducing the efficiency of fragmentation, and the focus has to be adjusted manually after locating the stone using X-rays or an external ultra-wave device. Therefore, focusing was extremely difficult and required a lot of effort and man-hours.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Therefore, an object of the present invention is to: -1. In order to overcome the shortcomings of conventional ultrasonic treatment devices such as To provide an ultrasonic treatment device that further improves the efficiency of treatment, shortens treatment time, and causes no pain to patients.

[Means and effects for solving the problems] The present invention has the following features:
In order to achieve the above purpose, an ultrasonic probe is installed in a part of the transducer array for generating strong ultrasonic waves, and this ultrasonic probe is used to obtain ultrasonic tomographic images at every fixed angle. a means for rotating, a means for extracting a part with the strongest echo intensity from the ultrasonic tomographic images obtained at each fixed angle, and detecting the coordinate position thereof; The invention is characterized by comprising means for moving the focal point of the generating transducer array.

That is, as shown in the conceptual diagram of FIG. 1, an ultrasonic tomographic image including a stone 11 inside a human body 1 is transmitted to an ultrasonic probe 2 of an ultrasonic treatment device. The ultrasonic probe 2 is scanned three-dimensionally by the scanner 3 to obtain a two-dimensional ultrasonic tomography. Obtain several statues. The image processing device 5 and the position detection device 6 detect the position information of the stone 11 from the several stages of two-dimensional ultrasonic tomographic images, and based on this position information, the position controller 9 controls the transducer array for generating strong ultrasonic waves. The focal point of the array 7 is moved by the transducer array mover 8, and when the focal point of the array 7 coincides with the stone 11, the strong ultrasonic drive circuit 10 is operated, and the transducer array 7 for generating strong ultrasonic waves is moved.
is driven to generate powerful ultrasonic waves, which are focused on the stone 11 to crush the stone 11.

In other words, by capturing an ultrasound image of a three-dimensional human body cross section,
This is image-processed in real time to find the location of the stone, and based on this location information, the powerful ultrasonic waves are constantly focused.

[Embodiment] Fig. 2 is a schematic configuration diagram of an ultrasonic treatment device showing an embodiment of the present invention, and the same components as those in the conceptual diagram of Fig. 1 above are designated by the same reference numerals. It is attached.

In FIG. 2, the vibrator array 7 for generating strong ultrasonic waves is
It is formed by pasting a large number of ultrasonic transducers 13 made of piezoelectric elements in a mosaic pattern on a spherical plate, and is driven by a strong ultrasonic drive circuit 10, and the generated strong ultrasonic waves are It is focused on the focal point F of the ultrasonic wave generating transducer array 7.

The ultra'rri wave probe 2 is an electronic sector scanning type probe, and is used to obtain a tomographic image of a sector-shaped portion indicated by a broken line.

The space between the human body 1 and the ultrasonic probe 2 is filled with water or the like to prevent the attenuation of ultrasonic waves, or a pouch (not shown) covering the transducer array 7 is filled with water. Fill it up and bring it into close contact with the human body 1. The ultrasonic probe 2 is rotated, for example, in 45° increments by a probe scanner 3 comprising, for example, a stepping motor, and ultrasonic waves are transmitted from an ultrasonic observation device 4 via a rotary transformer 14 at each angle. The pulse is sent, and the echo signal is returned from the ultrasound probe 2 to the ultrasound observation device 4 via the rotary transformer 14 and displayed as a B-mode image. This ultrasound view 7111 + video signal from the device 4 is inputted to the image processing device 5, and the position detection device 6 detects the stone 11.
position information is obtained and inputted to the position controller 9 manually. On the other hand, the rotation angle information of the stepping motor is also input from the probe scanner 3 to the same position controller 9. The position controller 9 is
The transducer array mover 8 is driven based on this information.

Next, the operation of the ultrasonic treatment apparatus configured as above will be explained. Now, the ultrasonic probe 2 is rotated by the probe scanner 3 at fixed angle intervals, for example, as shown in FIG. 3(A), so that a B-mode image is obtained every rotation of 45 degrees. If we extract only the parts with intensity above a certain level, we can obtain the result shown in Figure 3 (B
) Four images P1 to P4 are obtained as shown in FIG. Each of these P1 to P4 images is processed by the image processing device 5 and the position detection device 6 using an algorithm as shown in FIG.

That is, information on the B-mode image from the ultrasonic observation device 4 is taken into the image processing device 5. At this time, if a 2rL conversion process is performed to extract only the portion having a certain intensity or more, the stone can be easily extracted because the echo is stronger than other tissues. Next, the echo area of the extracted stone 11 is calculated.

Then, from among the four image planes P1 to P4, the plane with the largest area of the stone extracted (in this case, P2 image plane) is found, and the angle of the probe scanner 3 at this time (in this case, 45°
), and also find the six points of the center of gravity of the stone's echo on that surface (see FIG. 5), and output the coordinates of the point G of the center of gravity.

Next, the center of gravity point G and the strong ultrasonic wave generation transducer array 7
The difference ΔX, Δy (see FIG. 5) between point F, which is the focus of , θ) to the position controller 9.

The position controller 9 follows the information of ΔX, Δy, and θ, for example, x
- The transducer array mover 8 consisting of a yz stage is driven to align the position of the calculus 11 (see FIG. 2) with the focal point F position of the transducer array 7 for generating strong ultrasonic waves. In this state, the strong ultrasonic waves from the vibrator array 7 by the strong ultrasonic drive circuit 10 are concentrated on the stone at its focal point F to crush it.

In this embodiment, a B-mode image is captured every 45° rotation, but the invention is not limited to this, and even more accurate positioning can be achieved by dividing the angle into smaller increments. is clear. For example, if the probe scanner 3 is rotated at 2 rotations/second and θ is captured in 5° increments, the B mode image of 360' and 38 planes will be 0.0.
Since it can be processed in 5 seconds, the movement of the stone can be tracked sufficiently in practice. Therefore, since the focus F of the powerful ultrasound is always at the center of gravity of the echo of the stone, the powerful ultrasound drive circuit 10
If driven, stones can be crushed with maximum efficiency.

FIG. 6 is a mode image showing another usage example of the ultrasonic treatment apparatus shown in FIG. 2 above. In the case of the example shown in Figure 2 above, the explanation is based on the assumption that the center of gravity of the stone's echo and the center of gravity of the actual stone match, but in the case of a particularly hard stone, due to the characteristics of ultrasonic waves, , a high echo 21 as shown occurs at the boundary 7 of the stone 11 near the ultrasound probe 2, and simply finding the center of gravity of the echo will differ from the actual center of gravity of the stone 11. .

In such a case, for example, the farthest point from the ultrasound probe 2 or the actual position of the stone may be estimated from the shape of the echo, and the focus may be set there.

Although the ultrasonic probe 2 in the above embodiment has an electronic sector shape, it goes without saying that it may be of a convex, linear, or mechanical scanning type.

Furthermore, although this embodiment has been described with respect to the case of destroying a stone, the focusing technology of extracorporeal high-intensity ultrasound according to the present invention can be used to melt a blood clot inside the body.

It can also be used for sustained release agents (external ultrasound is applied to a drug-impregnated material to gradually release the drug), hyperthermia, etc.

[Effects of the Invention] As explained above, according to the present invention, it is possible to easily and accurately focus on a confirmed stone, concentrate the power of powerful ultrasonic waves on the stone, and quickly Lithotripsy can be carried out efficiently, the treatment time is shortened, and the patient is not inflicted with pain. Therefore, it is possible to provide an ultrasonic treatment device that eliminates the conventional drawbacks.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a conceptual diagram of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a schematic configuration diagram of an ultrasonic treatment device showing an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 3 (A) is the ultrasonic treatment device shown in FIG. 2 above. FIG. 3(B) is a diagram showing an example of the rotation angle of the ultrasound probe in FIG. 3(B) is a B-mode image of the ultrasound probe at each rotation angle; FIG. Fig. 5 is a flowchart showing the procedure for aligning the jtt point position of the transducer array with the focal position of the stone and the ultrasonic transducer array on the P2 image plane in Fig. 3 (B) of [U]. B-mode image showing the relationship of FIG. 6 is a B-mode image showing another usage example of the ultra&wave therapy device shown in FIG. 2 above. 1... Human body 2... Ultrasonic probe 3... Probe scanner (probe rotation means)
6... Position detection device (coordinate position detection means) 8... Vibrator array mover (vibrator array moving means) 11...・Calculus

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] In an ultrasonic treatment device that observes the location of an affected area such as a stone in the body using an ultrasonic observation device, and focuses shock waves generated outside the body for treatment, one of the transducer arrays for generating powerful ultrasonic waves is provided. an ultrasonic probe installed in the section; a means for rotating the ultrasonic probe so as to obtain ultrasonic tomographic images at fixed angles; and an ultrasonic tomographic image obtained at fixed angles. , a means for extracting a portion with the strongest echo intensity and detecting its coordinate position, and a means for moving the focal point of the vibrator array for generating strong ultrasonic waves to the detected coordinate position. Features of ultrasonic treatment equipment.