JPH1147126A - Laser line projector - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To improve the accuracy of radiotherapy or the like by providing at least one laser line generator capable of controlling the (radiation position via a signal or an operation from the outside. SOLUTION: At least one, e.g. about three, laser line generators 9-11 are installed on the diagonally backward right and left and upper side of a gantry 3. The laser line generator 10 is located diagonally above, it projects light in the vertical plane to vertically cross a tomographic plane 5 and cross the line-like light from a light irradiating device, and it can be moved in the directions of arrows C, D. The laser line generators 9, 11 are located on the diagonally backward right and left, they project light to cross the tomographic plane 5 and cross the light from the light irradiating device, and they can be moved in the directions of arrows E, F. The center position of a lesion is displayed by three intersections formed by the light projected from a laser line projector 8. When a marking is applied to it, accuracy can be improved.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a laser beam projector for use in a computer tomography system.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A computed tomography apparatus is an apparatus for taking a tomographic image perpendicular to the body axis direction of a human body, has an excellent image resolution, and is widely used for diagnosing a tumor. The computed tomography apparatus has a portion called a cradle for a patient to lie down, a mechanism for performing tomography, and a cylindrical opening in a central portion of a size enough for a person to pass through. A part called a gantry.

[0003] The cradle slides into the gantry with the patient on top, and carries the patient into the cylindrical opening. The tomographic image obtained by the computed tomography apparatus is a tomographic image of the patient on the tomographic plane in the cylindrical opening. A doctor or a technician obtains information such as the position and size of a lesion by observing a tomographic image taken by a computer tomography apparatus.

A laser line generator is provided above, to the left of, and to the right of the cradle. A laser line generator provided above the cradle emits a laser line parallel to the body axis direction of the patient lying on the cradle onto the upper body surface of the patient.
The laser line generators provided on the left and right sides of the cradle project laser lines parallel to the body axis direction of the patient lying on the cradle to the left and right body surfaces of the patient. Furthermore, laser lines perpendicular to the patient's body axis direction are projected on the left, right, and upper body surfaces of the patient. This irradiation plane is called a marking plane. The marking surface is different from the tomographic imaging surface of the computed tomography apparatus as described later.

[0005] A laser line emitted from a laser line generator provided above the cradle can move in the left-right direction about the body axis. The laser lines emitted from the laser line generators provided on the left and right sides of the cradle can move up and down.

A doctor or technician specifies the position of a lesion from a tomographic image obtained by a computed tomography apparatus,
The cradle is slid from within the gantry, the patient is removed from the gantry, and the tomographic plane with the lesion is superimposed on the marking plane indicated by the laser line perpendicular to the body axis.

[0007] A doctor or technician inputs the position of a lesion determined by observation with a computer tomography apparatus to each laser line generator, and emits a laser line parallel to the body axis to the position of the lesion. Therefore, a laser line perpendicular to the body axis and a laser line parallel to the body axis are projected on the body surface of the patient, and the position of the lesion is indicated as an intersection of the laser lines.

[0008] A doctor or technician makes markings at intersections, ie, marking points, created on the patient's body surface with a marking pen or the like. Thereby, a doctor or a technician can perform radiation irradiation or the like based on the marking point.

The marking surface and the tomographic imaging surface are surfaces parallel to each other, and are provided with a fixed offset. This offset amount is an amount determined when the gantry and the laser line generator are installed.

[0010]

In the conventional method, since there is an offset between the tomographic plane and the marking plane, the tomographic plane where the lesion exists is moved to the marking plane to indicate the position of the lesion. In order to mark on
The patient had to slide the cradle out of the gantry and remove the patient from the gantry.

In this case, when the cradle is slid into the gantry, that is, when the patient is carried into the gantry and tomography is performed, the cradle is in a cantilevered state, so that the cradle depends on the weight of the patient. Is warped. When the cradle is pulled out from the gantry, that is, when the patient is carried out of the gantry and marking is performed, the cradle is not bent.
This means that the operation of specifying the position of the lesion is performed in a state of bending, whereas the marking operation is performed in a state of no bending.

In the conventional method, it is necessary to transport the patient from the state where the tomography is performed to the state where the marking is performed, so that the cradle must be moved.
At this time, mechanical errors such as backlash of the cradle moving mechanism affect the accuracy of the marking position.

That is, there is an error between the position where the lesion actually exists and the position indicated by the marking point. Therefore, it is difficult to accurately and effectively irradiate the area where the lesion exists,
There is a problem that highly accurate treatment cannot be performed in radiation irradiation or the like.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In view of the above problems, the present invention relates to a computer tomography apparatus which performs marking at an accurate position on the body surface of a patient when performing radiotherapy or the like, thereby enabling more accurate radiotherapy or the like. A laser line projector is provided.

[0015]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION A laser line projector according to the present invention is used with a computed tomography apparatus and has at least one or more laser line generators, at least one of which is a laser line generator. The line generator has a function of projecting a laser beam in a vertical plane that intersects the tomographic plane of the computed tomography apparatus, and can control its irradiation position by an external signal or operation. is there. Another laser line generator has a function of projecting a laser beam in a horizontal plane that intersects a tomography plane of a computer tomography apparatus.

[0016]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Embodiments of the present invention will be described based on examples. FIG. 1 is a view for explaining an embodiment of a computer tomography apparatus system using a laser line projector according to the present invention. Computer tomography apparatus 1
Is composed of a cradle 2 on which a patient 7 is placed, a gantry 3 for performing tomography, and a console 4 on which tomographic images are displayed. The tomographic plane 5 is a vertical plane, and is located substantially at the center of the cylindrical opening 6 provided in the gantry 3. Patient 7 is lying on cradle 2. The cradle 2 is movable in the directions of arrows A and B in order to carry the patient 7 into the cylindrical opening 6 of the gantry 3.

The computer tomography apparatus 1 is provided with a light irradiator (not shown) for indicating the position of the tomography plane 5, and emits linear light 12 indicating the tomography plane on the patient's body surface. (See FIG. 2).
The laser line generators 9, 10, 11 of the laser line projector according to the present invention are installed diagonally rear right of the gantry 3, diagonally rear upper side of the gantry 3, and diagonally rear left.

A laser line generator 10 installed diagonally rearward and upper is perpendicular to the tomographic plane 5 and emits a laser beam 13 in a vertical plane 16. That is, the linear light 12 projected from the light irradiation device (not shown) and the laser light 13 projected from the laser line generator 10 have an intersection on the irradiation surface (see FIG. 2). Further, the laser beam 13 from the laser line generator 10 can be moved in the directions of arrows C and D while maintaining a plane 16 that is perpendicular to the tomography plane 5 and vertical.

The laser line generators 9 and 11 installed on the obliquely rear right side and the obliquely rear left side intersect with the tomographic plane 5 and have the laser beams 14 and 15 in a horizontal plane 17.
To emit light. That is, the linear light 12 projected from the light irradiation device (not shown) and the laser lights 14 and 15 projected from the laser line generators 9 and 11 have intersections on their irradiation surfaces (see FIG. 2). ). In addition, the laser line generator 9
The laser light by the and 11 keeps the horizontal plane 17,
It can be moved in the directions of arrows E and F.

The physician or technician moves the cradle 2 in the direction of arrow A until the position where the lesion 18 of the patient 7 is assumed to be near the tomography plane 5 and moves the patient 7 to the cylindrical opening of the gantry 3. It is carried into the unit 6. The doctor or technician can perform tomography while moving the position of the cradle 2 at regular intervals, observe the tomography image displayed on the console 4, and know the center position and size of the lesion 18. The doctor or technician can know the tomographic image at the center of the lesion 18. Here, FIG.
FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of a tomographic image in which the center of the image exists. Origin 0
Is the center of the tomographic plane, the x-axis corresponds to the directions of arrows C and D in FIG. 1, and the y-axis corresponds to the directions of arrows E and F in FIG. A plane of a tomographic image represented by an xy plane;
That is, the z-axis perpendicular to the tomographic plane corresponds to the cradle moving directions A and B in FIG. The center position of the lesion 18 on the tomographic plane is indicated by coordinates (a, b, c).
However, the coordinates c are coordinates in the z-axis direction not shown in FIG.

A doctor or technician needs to mark the position of the lesion 18 on the body surface of the patient 7 with a marking pen or the like in order to perform radiation treatment or the like on the patient 7. When the doctor marks the center position of the lesion 18 of the patient 7 on the body surface of the patient 7, the position of the lesion 18 obtained by the method described above,
That is, the cradle 2 is moved so that the coordinates c are at the position of the tomographic imaging plane 5. Next, the coordinates (a, b) of the center position of the lesion 18 on the tomography plane are input to the laser line projector 8. The laser line generator 10 moves and projects the laser light in a vertical plane corresponding to the coordinate a, and the laser line generators 9 and 11 move the laser light in a horizontal plane corresponding to the coordinate b. Emits light. Further, a linear light 12 indicating the tomographic imaging surface 5 is projected from a light irradiation device (not shown). That is, on the right, upper and left body surfaces of the patient, the laser line generators 9, 10,
A laser line is projected from each of, and 11,
A linear light 12 is projected from a light irradiation device (not shown) on the body surface of the patient 7 on the tomography plane 5. Therefore, three laser lines emitted by the laser line generators 9, 10, and 11 and a linear light emitted from a light irradiation device (not shown) are provided at three places on the body surface of the patient 7. Irradiated in a crossed state. That is, three intersections indicating the center position of the lesion 18 are indicated by the laser line projecting device 8 on the surface of the patient body, so that the doctor or technician uses the marking pen or the like to mark on the surface of the patient body at the intersection. Do.

In this embodiment, as an example for the laser beam to indicate a horizontal plane corresponding to the coordinate b, the laser line generators 9 and 11 move the laser beams 14 and 15 to be projected. However, as another example, by moving the cradle carrying the patient up and down,
An example is conceivable in which the laser beams 14 and 15 emitted from the laser line generators 9 and 11 are stationary, but the laser beams can indicate a horizontal plane corresponding to the coordinate b.

[0023]

According to the present invention, since the tomographic imaging surface and the marking surface are the same surface, the state where the tomographic imaging is performed and the state where the marking is performed are the same. Therefore, the deflection of the cradle does not change and no error occurs.
Also, since there is no need to move the cradle, the mechanical error of the cradle moving mechanism does not affect the marking position accuracy. For this reason, it is possible to accurately perform marking on the patient's body surface based on information obtained from the tomographic image. Therefore, the doctor or the technician performs radiation irradiation or the like based on the correctly marked marking point, so that it is possible to perform highly accurate treatment.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of one embodiment of a laser line projector according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing a state of laser light and the like emitted according to one embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram showing a tomographic image in which a lesion exists.

[Explanation of symbols]

1. Computer tomography device 2. Cradle 3.
Gantry, 4 ... Console, 5 ... Tomography plane, 6 ... Cylindrical opening, 7 ... Patient, 8 ... Laser line projector, 9 ・
10.11: laser line generator, 12: linear light, 13, 14, 15: laser line, 16: vertical plane perpendicular to the tomographic plane, 17: horizontal plane to the tomographic plane, 18 … Lesions

Claims (2)

[Claims] The present invention has a function of projecting a laser beam in a vertical plane that intersects a tomographic imaging plane of a computed tomography apparatus, and that can control its irradiation position by an external signal or operation. A laser line projector having at least one laser line generator. 2. The laser line projection device according to claim 1, further comprising at least one laser line generator having a function of projecting a laser beam in a horizontal plane that intersects a tomography plane of the computed tomography apparatus. Light device.