CN111743567A

CN111743567A - Ultrasonic three-dimensional whole body radiography system

Info

Publication number: CN111743567A
Application number: CN201910232956.7A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 黄元平
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2019-03-26
Filing date: 2019-03-26
Publication date: 2020-10-09
Also published as: CN115919360A

Abstract

The invention provides an ultrasonic three-dimensional whole body radiography system, which comprises an ultrasonic wave guide medium container, an ultrasonic probe array and an ultrasonic radiography instrument. The ultrasonic wave guided wave medium container has a detection space, and a guided wave medium is filled in the detection space and is used for a detected body to immerse. The ultrasonic probe array is arranged in the ultrasonic wave guided wave medium container, and comprises a plurality of probe units which are integrated into a ring array which is annularly arranged on the peripheral side in the detection space. The ultrasound imaging apparatus constructs a three-dimensional image model from data fed back from each pixel of the ultrasound probe array.

Description

Ultrasonic three-dimensional whole body radiography system

Technical Field

The present invention relates to a three-dimensional whole body imaging system, and more particularly, to a system for performing three-dimensional whole body imaging using ultrasonic waves.

Background

In recent years, with the rapid development of the biomedical industry, further breakthrough is made in the biomedical technology. Generally, when performing three-dimensional imaging of a patient, most of the cases, a nuclear magnetic resonance method is used to expose the patient to a magnetic field, irradiate the patient with appropriate electromagnetic waves to change the rotational arrangement direction of hydrogen atoms, so as to make them resonate, and then analyze the released electromagnetic waves. Although nmr is less harmful to the human body than X-ray and tomography, the electromagnetic energy emitted by the large-angle rf field used in the nmr focusing or measuring process may be converted into heat energy in the patient's tissue, which may raise the temperature of the tissue and may still cause damage to the human body.

Compared with nuclear magnetic resonance, ultrasound is noninvasive, non-radioactive and is commonly used in medical treatment. Especially in the obstetrical field, due to the sensitivity of the fetus to radiation, diagnostic equipment such as X-ray and tomography is not basically adopted for the fetus or the mother, and the ultrasonic imaging technology becomes the best choice.

Compared with the prior art, the ultrasonic scanning has the following advantages: 1. has no radioactivity and high safety compared with X-ray, tomography, and nuclear magnetic resonance. 2. The real-time property, the image seen is real-time, the time of film developing or digital imaging is not needed to wait, the time is saved, the real-time monitoring can be carried out, and the method can be applied to the field of cardiovascular and can measure the blood flow velocity, thereby diagnosing the pathological change condition.

However, the existing ultrasonic detection is generally two-dimensional detection, even though the pathological condition can be rapidly diagnosed by the ultrasonic wave, the detection is local non-whole body imaging of the human body, and the ultrasonic detection is disadvantageous (insufficient imaging); poor conductivity to some media (e.g., hard tissue bones) is inadequate for penetration and imaging, so that ultrasonic imaging of the brain is extremely limited because of the large acoustic impedance difference and poor quality of ultrasonic imaging when there is gas between the probe and the tissue being probed. Imaging of the pancreas is very difficult due to frontal interference by gastrointestinal gases, and imaging of the lungs is not possible (unless pleural effusion and tumors are probed); in addition, the ultrasound probe depth makes imaging of structures far from the body surface difficult, especially in obese patients. So that the medical ultrasonic examination effect is greatly reduced.

Disclosure of Invention

To achieve the above objective, the present invention provides an ultrasonic three-dimensional whole body angiography system, which includes an ultrasonic wave guide medium container, an ultrasonic probe array and an ultrasonic angiography apparatus. The ultrasonic wave guided wave medium container has a detection space, and the detection space is filled with a guided wave medium for the immersion of the specimen. The ultrasonic probe array is arranged in the ultrasonic wave guided wave medium container, and comprises a plurality of probe units which are integrated into a ring array which is annularly arranged on the peripheral side in the detection space. The ultrasound imaging apparatus constructs a three-dimensional image model from data fed back from each pixel of the ultrasound probe array.

Optionally, the wave-guiding medium is water, deaerated water, a developer or wave-guiding glue.

Optionally, a sound insulation layer is disposed on the ultrasonic guided wave medium container.

Another objective of the present invention is to provide an ultrasonic three-dimensional whole body angiography system, which includes an ultrasonic wave guiding medium container, a movable ultrasonic probe and an ultrasonic angiography apparatus. The ultrasonic wave guided wave medium container has a detection space, and the detection space is filled with a guided wave medium for the immersion of the specimen. The movable ultrasonic probe comprises a linear carrying platform and a ring-shaped ultrasonic probe array arranged on the linear carrying platform, the ring-shaped ultrasonic probe array comprises a plurality of probe units which are integrated into a ring-shaped array, and the ring-shaped ultrasonic probe moves along the detection space by the linear carrying platform. The ultrasonic imaging apparatus constructs a three-dimensional image model according to the moving speed of the linear carrying platform and the data fed back by the annular ultrasonic probe.

Therefore, compared with the prior art, the invention has the following advantages and effects:

1. the invention carries out three-dimensional whole-body radiography on the patient through the ultrasonic probe groups, can carry out multi-dimensional image reconstruction aiming at the tissues which the ultrasonic wave is difficult to pass through and avoids the defect of insufficient imaging.

2. The invention carries out three-dimensional whole-body radiography on the patient through the ultrasonic probe groups, and can effectively avoid the possibility of human body injury.

3. The invention can directly output the three-dimensional image of the patient or the affected part through the ultrasonic probe array without the conversion of the two-dimensional image.

Drawings

The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification, illustrate embodiments of the invention and together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the invention.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a first embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 2 is a schematic external view of a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of an external appearance of a second embodiment of the present invention.

Description of reference numerals:

100 ultrasonic three-dimensional whole body radiography system

10A ultrasonic wave guided medium container

11A wave-guiding medium

12A sound insulation layer

20A ultrasonic probe array

21A probe unit

30A ultrasonic radiography instrument

S1 detection space

200 ultrasonic three-dimensional whole body radiography system

10B ultrasonic wave guided medium container

11B wave-guiding medium

20B mobile ultrasonic probe

21B linear stage

22B ring ultrasonic probe array

221B probe unit

30B ultrasonic radiography instrument

S2 detection space

Detailed Description

The detailed description and technical contents of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings. Furthermore, for convenience of illustration, the drawings are not necessarily to scale, and the drawings and their proportions are not intended to limit the scope of the invention.

The following detailed description of the present invention is provided to take an embodiment, and refer to fig. 1 and fig. 2, which are a block diagram and an appearance diagram of a first embodiment of the present invention, as shown in the drawings:

the embodiment discloses an ultrasonic three-dimensional whole body imaging system, which comprises an ultrasonic three-dimensional whole body imaging system 100, which comprises an ultrasonic wave guide medium container 10A, an ultrasonic probe array 20A and an ultrasonic imaging instrument 30A.

The ultrasonic wave guided wave medium container 10A has a detection space S1, and the detection space S1 is filled with the guided wave medium 11A for the specimen to immerse. In a preferred embodiment, a sound insulation layer 12A is disposed on the ultrasonic guided wave medium container 10A, and the sound insulation layer 12A may be a sound absorbing material or a noise reducing material disposed at any position (e.g., outside, inside of the housing) of the ultrasonic guided wave medium container 10A relative to the ultrasonic probe array 20A for blocking the ultrasonic probe array 20A from the outside. In order to achieve a better detection effect, the waveguide medium 11A is water, deaerated water, developer, or waveguide glue, and the invention is not limited thereto.

The ultrasonic probe array 20A is disposed inside the ultrasonic wave guided medium container 10A, and the ultrasonic probe array 20A includes a plurality of probe units 21A integrated into a ring array (L number)_th*H_th) The ring is provided on the inner peripheral side of the detection space S1.

In medical ultrasound examinations, short and intense acoustic pulses generated by a phased array of piezoelectric transducers (typically ceramic) create acoustic waves. The wires and transducer are housed in a probe unit 21A and the electrical pulses cause the ceramic to oscillate producing a series of acoustic pulses. The frequency of the acoustic wave may be represented as any frequency from 1 to 13 megahertz, well above the frequency audible to the human ear. The term ultrasonic wave broadly refers to any sound wave having a frequency exceeding the audible range of the human ear. The purpose of medical ultrasound is to aggregate the sound waves scattered by the transducer to produce a single sound wave that is focused into an arc. Higher frequencies correspond to shorter wavelengths, and the resolution of the resulting image is higher. But the attenuation of the sound wave is faster as the frequency of the sound wave increases. So to probe deeper tissues, a lower frequency (3-5 mhz) is preferably used.

In order to efficiently transmit the acoustic wave into the specimen (i.e., impedance matching), the surface of the probe unit 21A is coated with rubber. The sound waves are partially reflected back to the probe from the interface between different tissues, i.e. echoes, also generated by sound waves scattered by very small structures.

Upon receiving the echo, the sound wave returns to the probe unit 21A, similar to the sound wave transmitted by the probe unit 21A, but in reverse. The returned acoustic waves oscillate the transducer of the probe unit 21A and convert the oscillations into electrical pulses, which are transmitted by the probe unit 21A to the sonographer 30A and processed by the sonographer 30A into digital images.

The ultrasound imaging apparatus 30A is an image processing apparatus, and constructs a three-dimensional image model by using data fed back from each pixel (probe unit 21A) of the ultrasound probe array 20A. The ultrasound imaging apparatus 30A mainly receives three different parameters of the ultrasound probe array 20A, including the probe unit 21A receiving the echo (i.e. the array position of the response), the signal strength of the echo, and the flight time (response time) of the ultrasound wave.

After the ultrasound imaging apparatus 30A obtains the above three data, a three-dimensional model of the object can be reconstructed from the above data. In order to establish a three-dimensional model in an image, the responses of the probe units 21A can be performed through time-sharing multitask, the coordinates of a single pixel (i.e., the relative coordinates or world coordinates obtained in the three-dimensional space) can be established through the positions of the probe units 21A and the flight time of the ultrasonic wave, and when the image is converted into a three-dimensional image, the image must be corrected corresponding to the positions of the probe units 21A to be mapped into the three-dimensional space, for example, a reference point of a world coordinate system is set and mapping operation is performed based on the reference point; the signal intensity of echo and the ultrasonic wave flight time can determine the tissue density of different regions to construct tissue layers in depth, and the reconstructed three-dimensional image can be filtered by setting a specific threshold value, so as to obtain the images of the region of interest (such as the images of blood system, visceral organ structure, pathological tissue, benign tumor and malignant tumor) independently. In addition, the depth of image penetration (i.e. sampling depth) can be changed by setting the power and frequency of the ultrasonic wave, so that the image of relatively shallow layer or deep layer can be reconstructed. In another preferred embodiment, the images may be filled in with different gray scale values or colors by setting different specific thresholds to highlight the images of the respective tissues.

In addition to the above algorithm, in a preferred embodiment, the present invention can also be used in Single Input Multiple Output (SIMO), Multiple Input Single Output (MISO), Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO), etc., and is not limited in the present invention.

In the present embodiment, the ultrasound imaging apparatus 30A of the ultrasound probe array 20A surrounding the object under examination assumes a constant acoustic velocity of 1540 m/s. Although echo generation may still lose a portion of the acoustic energy, it has little effect on the attenuation caused by the absorption of the acoustic wave.

For the following description of another embodiment, the difference between the present embodiment and the previous embodiment mainly lies in the arrangement form of the ultrasonic probe array, and other parts that are the same as the above are not repeated, please refer to fig. 3 and fig. 4, which are schematic block diagram and schematic appearance diagram of the second embodiment of the present invention, as shown in the drawings:

the embodiment discloses an ultrasonic three-dimensional whole body imaging system 200, which comprises an ultrasonic wave guide medium container 10B, a movable ultrasonic probe 20B, and an ultrasonic imaging instrument 30B.

The ultrasonic wave guided wave medium container 10B has a detection space S2, and the guided wave medium 11B is filled in the detection space S2 for the specimen to be immersed in. In a preferred embodiment, the ultrasonic guided wave medium container 10B is provided with a sound insulation layer, which can be an acoustic absorbing material or a noise reducing material, disposed at any position (e.g., outside, inside of the housing) of the ultrasonic guided wave medium container 10B relative to the movable ultrasonic probe 20B for blocking the movable ultrasonic probe 20B from the outside. In order to achieve a better detection effect, the waveguide medium 11B is water, deaerated water, developer, or waveguide glue, and the invention is not limited thereto.

The movable ultrasonic probe 20B includes a linear stage 21B and a ring-shaped ultrasonic probe array 22B disposed on the linear stage 21B, the ring-shaped ultrasonic probe array 22B includes a plurality of probe units 221B integrated into a ring-shaped array, and the ring-shaped ultrasonic probe array 22B is moved back and forth along the detection space S2 by the linear stage 21B. In order to reconstruct the three-dimensional model, the ring-shaped ultrasonic probe array 22B feeds back three different parameters, i.e., the probe unit 221B that receives the echo (i.e., the array position of the response), the signal intensity of the echo, and the flight time (response time) of the ultrasonic wave, and further feeds back the moving rate of the linear stage 21B, so as to correct the array position of the response through the moving rate.

The ultrasound imaging apparatus 30B is an image processing apparatus, and constructs a three-dimensional image model by using data fed back from each pixel of the ring-shaped ultrasound probe array 22B. The ultrasound imaging apparatus 30B mainly receives four different parameters of the ring-shaped ultrasound probe array 22B, including the probe unit 221B receiving the echo (i.e. the array position of the response), the moving speed of the linear stage, the signal intensity of the echo, and the flight time (response time) of the ultrasound wave.

In summary, the present invention performs three-dimensional whole body radiography on a patient by using a plurality of ultrasound probes, and can reconstruct a multi-dimensional image of a tissue through which ultrasound is not easy to pass, thereby avoiding the defect of insufficient imaging performance. In addition, the invention carries out three-dimensional whole-body radiography on the patient through the ultrasonic probe groups, thereby effectively avoiding the possibility of human body injury. Furthermore, the invention can directly output the three-dimensional image of the patient or the affected part through the ultrasonic probe array without the need of converting the two-dimensional image.

Although the present invention has been described in detail, it should be understood that the foregoing is only a preferred embodiment of the present invention, and the scope of the invention should not be limited thereby.

Claims

1. An ultrasonic three-dimensional whole body imaging system, comprising:

an ultrasonic wave guided wave medium container, which has a detection space filled with a guided wave medium and used for the immersion of the specimen;

an ultrasonic probe array arranged in the ultrasonic wave guided wave medium container, wherein the ultrasonic probe array comprises a plurality of probe units integrated into a ring array which is annularly arranged on the peripheral side in the detection space; and

an ultrasonic imaging apparatus, which constructs a three-dimensional image model by the data fed back by each pixel of the ultrasonic probe array.

2. The ultrasonic three-dimensional whole body radiography system of claim 1 wherein the wave-guiding medium is water, degassed water, developer or wave-guiding glue.

3. The ultrasonic three-dimensional whole body imaging system according to claim 1, wherein an acoustic insulation layer is disposed on the ultrasonic guided wave medium container.

4. An ultrasonic three-dimensional whole body imaging system, comprising:

a movable ultrasonic probe, including a linear carrier and a ring-shaped ultrasonic probe array arranged on the linear carrier, the ring-shaped ultrasonic probe array including a plurality of probe units integrated into a ring-shaped array, the ring-shaped ultrasonic probe moving along the detection space from the linear carrier; and

an ultrasonic imaging instrument, which constructs a three-dimensional image model according to the moving speed of the linear carrying platform and the data fed back by the annular ultrasonic probe.

5. The ultrasonic three-dimensional whole body imaging system according to claim 4, wherein the wave-guiding medium is water, degassed water, developer or wave-guiding glue.

6. The ultrasonic three-dimensional whole body imaging system according to claim 4, wherein an acoustic insulation layer is disposed on the ultrasonic guided wave medium container.