CN111743568A

CN111743568A - Ultrasonic oral cavity radiography equipment

Info

Publication number: CN111743568A
Application number: CN201910232974.5A
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

Abstract

The invention provides an ultrasonic oral cavity radiography device, which comprises a chin support bracket, a plurality of U-shaped ultrasonic detectors and an ultrasonic inspection instrument. The chin support bracket is provided with a bracket. The plurality of U-shaped ultrasonic detectors respectively comprise a plurality of ultrasonic probes which are arranged in a U shape in an array form. The ultrasonic inspection instrument is connected to the plurality of U-shaped ultrasonic detectors, and generates an oral cavity three-dimensional image according to signals received by the U-shaped ultrasonic detectors.

Description

Ultrasonic oral cavity radiography equipment

Technical Field

The present invention relates to an ultrasonic imaging apparatus, and more particularly, to an ultrasonic oral imaging apparatus applied in the oral cavity field for medical diagnosis.

Background

With the rapid development of the pharmaceutical industry, various non-invasive and non-radioactive inspection methods are widely applied to practical medical treatment, which are different from the general inspection methods using X-ray, tomography or nuclear magnetic resonance, and are helpful to reduce the harm to human body.

Among them, the examination method using medical ultrasonic waves is most widely used, and medical ultrasonic examination is an image in which ultrasonic waves are transmitted into a body tissue to be examined, and the size and structure of muscles and organs are visualized by detecting and describing the returned ultrasonic echoes, and is an irreplaceable position in medical diagnostics. The medical ultrasonic examination has the advantages of no radioactivity and real-time performance, is high in safety and capable of imaging in real time, greatly saves time required by film developing or digital imaging, is commonly applied to the obstetrical field and used for checking the growth state of a fetus, can be used for real-time measurement, can be applied to the cardiovascular field, and diagnoses the pathological change condition by measuring the blood flow rate.

Since the initial symptoms of many diseases appear in the oral cavity first, Autoimmune diseases (AIDS) such as Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS), lupus erythematosus and herpetic dermatitis all have symptoms such as oral cavity broke and ulcer. In view of the above, the present inventors have considered that there is a need to devise a medical diagnosis technique that applies medical ultrasound examination to the oral field to assist physicians in diagnosing oral lesions in a timely and rapid manner and to avoid delayed disease treatment opportunities.

Disclosure of Invention

The main objective of the present invention is to provide a device for scanning the oral cavity with ultrasonic waves for medical diagnosis.

To achieve the above objects, the present invention provides an ultrasonic oral radiography apparatus, which includes a chin support bracket, a plurality of U-shaped ultrasonic detectors, and an ultrasonic inspection device. The chin support bracket is provided with a bracket. The U-shaped ultrasonic detectors respectively comprise a plurality of ultrasonic probes which are arranged in a U shape in an array form. The ultrasonic inspection instrument is connected to the plurality of U-shaped ultrasonic detectors, and generates an oral cavity three-dimensional image according to signals received by the U-shaped ultrasonic detectors.

Further, the bracket has a plurality of stages tapering toward the bottom side, and the plurality of U-shaped ultrasonic detectors are respectively arranged in cooperation with each stage of the chin support bracket.

Further, the area of the plurality of U-shaped ultrasonic detectors is reduced from top to bottom to match the step tapering.

Furthermore, a nasal bracket is arranged on the bracket corresponding to each stage position.

Further, the bracket is coated with a wave-guiding material.

Further, the wave-guiding material is a water-based gel.

Furthermore, the ultrasonic inspection instrument respectively performs coloring or gray scale processing according to different feedback signal intensities.

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

1. the invention is provided with the chin support bracket for the chin of the patient to lean against so as to carry out three-dimensional radiography on the oral cavity of the patient, can adapt to various face shapes and sizes, and is suitable for examining the patients of all ages.

2. The invention is provided with a plurality of U-shaped ultrasonic detectors, can avoid the defect of insufficient imaging, reduce the damage to human bodies, and directly output the three-dimensional images of the oral cavity without converting through two-dimensional images.

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 of a first embodiment of an ultrasonic intraoral contrast device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an external view of a first embodiment of the chin support bracket and the U-shaped ultrasonic detector of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of a first embodiment of the chin support bracket and the U-shaped ultrasonic detector of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is an external view of a chin support bracket and a U-shaped ultrasonic detector according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view of a second embodiment of the chin support bracket and the U-shaped ultrasonic detector of the present invention.

Description of reference numerals:

100 ultrasonic oral cavity radiography equipment

10A chin support bracket

11A bracket

20A U ultrasonic detector

21A ultrasonic probe

30A ultrasonic inspection instrument

10B chin support bracket

11B bracket

Stage 12B

20B U ultrasonic detector

21B ultrasonic probe

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.

Please refer to fig. 1, which is a block diagram of an ultrasonic oral cavity radiography apparatus according to the present invention, as shown in the figure:

the invention discloses an ultrasonic oral cavity radiography device 100, which comprises a chin support bracket 10A, a plurality of U-shaped ultrasonic detectors 20A and an ultrasonic inspection instrument 30A, and is mainly applied to the field of oral cavity medical treatment.

Referring to fig. 2 to 3, there are shown an external view and a cross-sectional view of a chin support bracket 10A and a U-shaped ultrasonic detector of the present invention, as shown in the drawings:

the chin support bracket 10A is provided with a bracket 11A for the subject to lean on. In the preferred embodiment, the bracket 11A is provided with a nasal bracket for matching the nose position of the subject.

In order to achieve better detection effect, the bracket 11A is coated with a wave guide material, which acts as a coupling between the skin of the subject and the U-shaped ultrasonic detector 20A, so that the ultrasonic waves can smoothly enter and exit the skin of the subject. In a preferred embodiment, the wave-guiding material is a water-based gel.

The U-shaped ultrasonic detectors 20A respectively comprise a plurality of ultrasonic probes 21A which are arranged in an array form in a U shape and are annularly arranged on the other side of the bracket 11A. The U-shaped ultrasonic detectors 20 are configured to match the shape of the bracket 11A from top to bottom to match various face sizes, so as to accurately correspond to the oral cavity position of the subject for examination.

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 enclosed in an ultrasonic probe 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 ultrasonic probe 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 ultrasonic probe 21A, similar to the sound wave emitted by the ultrasonic probe 21A, but in reverse. The returned sound waves oscillate the transducer of the ultrasound probe 21A and convert the oscillations into electrical pulses, which are sent from the ultrasound probe 21A to the sonographer 30A and processed into digital images by the sonographer 30A.

The ultrasonic inspection device 30A is connected to the plurality of U-shaped ultrasonic detectors 20A, and the ultrasonic inspection device 30A generates an oral stereo image according to the signals received by the U-shaped ultrasonic detectors 20A. The ultrasonic inspection apparatus 30A is an image processing apparatus, and constructs a three-dimensional image of an object by using data fed back from each pixel (ultrasonic probe 21A) of the plurality of U-shaped ultrasonic detectors 20A. The ultrasonic inspection device 30A mainly receives three different parameters of the ultrasonic probe 21A, including the ultrasonic probe 21A receiving the echo (i.e. the position of the response array), the signal strength of the echo, and the flight time (response time) of the ultrasonic wave.

After the ultrasonic inspection apparatus 30A obtains the above three data, a three-dimensional model of the detected portion can be reconstructed from the above data. In order to establish a three-dimensional model in an image, the responses of the multiple ultrasonic probes 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 determined through the positions of the responding ultrasonic probes 21A and the flight time of the ultrasonic waves, and when the image is converted into a three-dimensional image, the image must be corrected corresponding to the positions of the ultrasonic probes 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 flight time of ultrasonic wave can determine the tissue density of different areas to construct tissue layering on depth, and the reconstructed three-dimensional image can be filtered by setting a specific threshold value, so as to obtain the images of the interested area, such as the images of dental caries, oral inflammation (gum, gingiva, mucous membrane and the like), oral deformity (incorrect tooth position, cleft lip and the like), oral cancer, vesicle, mycosis and the like. 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 ultrasonic inspection device 30A performs coloring or gray scale processing according to different feedback signal intensities, and fills the image with different gray scale values or colors by setting different specific thresholds, so as to highlight the image of the respective oral 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., which is not limited by the present invention.

In this example, the ultrasound probe 21A, the sonographer 30A surrounding the object under examination assumes a constant acoustic velocity of 1540m/s for the intended medical purpose. 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.

Another preferred embodiment of the ultrasonic oral cavity radiography apparatus of the present invention is disclosed below, and the difference between this embodiment and the previous embodiment is the specific structure of the chin support bracket, and the ultrasonic inspection apparatus with the same structure will not be described in detail herein.

Referring to fig. 4 to 5, there are shown an external view and a cross-sectional view of a chin support bracket and a U-shaped ultrasonic detector according to a second embodiment of the present invention, as shown in the drawings:

in this embodiment, the chin support bracket 10B is provided with a bracket 11B for the subject to lean on, the bracket 11B has a plurality of stages 12B tapering toward the bottom side, and in practical application, a plurality of stages 12B with different widths and depths are assembled according to the face size of the subject, so as to increase the flexibility of the chin support bracket 10B. As shown in FIG. 4, the bracket 11B includes five stages 12B from top to bottom, the number of stages 12B is not limited in the present invention, and may be four, six or other embodiments, as will be described in detail herein. The bracket 11B is provided with a nasal bracket corresponding to each stage 12B for adapting the nose position of the subject.

The U-shaped ultrasonic detectors 20B are respectively disposed in association with each stage 12B of the chin support bracket 10B, and the U-shaped ultrasonic detectors 20B include a plurality of ultrasonic probes 21B arranged in an array in a U-shape and annularly disposed on the other side of the bracket 11B. The U-shaped ultrasonic detectors 20B are reduced in area from top to bottom to match the step 12B for tapering, so as to match various face sizes to accurately correspond to the oral cavity position of the subject for examination.

In summary, the present invention provides a chin support frame with a plurality of U-shaped ultrasonic detectors, which can be adapted to various face shapes and sizes for patients of various ages to lean against to perform three-dimensional radiography of their oral cavities, and simultaneously avoid the lack of imaging performance and reduce the damage to human body, and directly output three-dimensional images of the oral cavities without the need of converting through two-dimensional images.

The present invention has been described in detail, but the above description is only a preferred embodiment of the present invention, and the scope of the present invention should not be limited thereby, and all equivalent changes and modifications made according to the claims of the present invention should still fall within the scope of the present invention.

Claims

1. An ultrasonic intraoral imaging apparatus, comprising:

a chin support bracket, on which a bracket is arranged;

a plurality of U-shaped ultrasonic detectors respectively comprising a plurality of ultrasonic probes arranged in a U shape in an array form; and

an ultrasonic inspection instrument connected to the plurality of U-shaped ultrasonic detectors, the ultrasonic inspection instrument generating an oral cavity three-dimensional image according to the signals received by the U-shaped ultrasonic detectors.

2. The ultrasonic intraoral imaging apparatus of claim 1, wherein the bracket has a plurality of stages tapered toward the bottom side, and a plurality of the U-shaped ultrasonic detectors are respectively disposed in association with each stage of the chin support bracket.

3. The ultrasonic intraoral imaging apparatus of claim 2, wherein the plurality of U-shaped ultrasonic detectors are reduced in area from top to bottom to match the step taper.

4. The ultrasonic intraoral imaging apparatus of claim 2, wherein a nasal bracket is disposed in the bracket corresponding to each of the plurality of stages.

5. The ultrasonic intraoral imaging apparatus of claim 1, wherein the bracket is coated with a wave-guiding material.

6. The ultrasonic intraoral imaging apparatus of claim 5, wherein the wave-guiding material is a water-based gel.

7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the ultrasonic inspection device performs coloring or gray-scale processing according to the feedback signal intensity.