CN116269477A

CN116269477A - Elasticity detection device

Info

Publication number: CN116269477A
Application number: CN202211661551.3A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 和晓念
Original assignee: Shenzhen Yingyue Medical Technology Co ltd
Current assignee: Shenzhen Yingyue Medical Technology Co ltd
Priority date: 2022-12-23
Filing date: 2022-12-23
Publication date: 2023-06-23

Abstract

The invention discloses an elastic detection device, which comprises: an ultrasonic transducer; the sound transmission structure is arranged at the upper end of the ultrasonic transducer detection surface; the sound transmission structure includes: an acoustically transparent structural body; the protruding part is arranged at the top of the sound transmission structure body; the shape of the lower end face of the sound transmission structure body is matched with that of the ultrasonic transducer detection face, so that an image two-dimensional B image guiding function is realized, and the instantaneous elastic detection quality can be ensured.

Description

Elasticity detection device

Technical Field

The invention relates to the technical field of medical equipment, in particular to an elasticity detection device.

Background

The existing instantaneous elastography technology has the problem that the image guiding function and the elasticity detection quality cannot be considered, for example:

chinese patent application CN105748106a discloses that the shear wave is excited by vibration of an acoustically transparent diaphragm under the action of a liquid driver, but in practice this solution, although it can excite the shear wave, it cannot excite the shear wave suitable for transient elastography detection. In transient elasticity detection, the vibrating member must form a distinct bulge. The vibration member needs to be depressed in the rib gap to be in an initial state for exciting the shear wave under a proper pressing force, and then the shear wave suitable for instantaneous elasticity detection can be excited by driving the vibration member with the raised portion to perform low-frequency instantaneous vibration.

The chinese patent application CN108095762a discloses that the vibration component with sound transmission property is disposed at the front end of the ultrasonic transducer, and the vibration component is connected by the driver to drive the driver, and this scheme has the problem that when the driver drives the vibration component, the distance between the vibration component and the detection surface of the ultrasonic transducer will change due to the fact that the ultrasonic transducer is kept stationary, and air will be generated on the ultrasonic signal propagation channel, which affects the propagation of the ultrasonic signal, and further affects the elastic detection. This approach also does not enable the clinical instantaneous elasticity detection with image-guided functionality.

Accordingly, the prior art is still in need of improvement and development.

Disclosure of Invention

In view of the foregoing deficiencies of the prior art, an object of the present invention is to provide an elasticity detecting apparatus, comprising: an ultrasonic transducer; the sound transmission structure is arranged at the upper end of the ultrasonic transducer detection surface; the sound transmission structure includes: an acoustically transparent structural body; the protruding part is arranged at the top of the sound transmission structure body; the lower end face of the sound transmission structure body is matched with the detection surface of the ultrasonic transducer.

Further, the sound transmission structure is fixed on or integrally formed on the ultrasonic transducer detection surface.

Further, the cross-sectional area of the sound transmission structure is uniform, or the area of the lower end surface of the sound transmission structure is larger than that of the upper end surface of the sound transmission structure.

Further, at least the part of the sound transmission structure far away from the ultrasonic transducer detection surface is one or a combination of any two or more of a cylinder, a cuboid, a cube and a table-shaped body.

The elasticity detecting device of claim 1, wherein a distance between an upper end surface of the sound-transmitting structure and the ultrasonic transducer detecting surface is 1mm to 20mm.

Further, the width d1 of the ultrasonic transducer ranges from 5mm to 15mm.

Further, the elastic detection device also comprises a shell, and the ultrasonic transducer is connected with the shell in a sealing way through an elastic medium.

Further, the width dimension of the lower end surface of the sound transmission structure is greater than, equal to or about equal to the width dimension of the ultrasonic transducer.

Further, the sound transmission structure is connected with the ultrasonic transducer through a connecting piece.

Further, the ultrasonic transducer is a phased array ultrasonic transducer or a convex array ultrasonic transducer.

In summary, according to the elastic detection device provided by the invention, the sound transmission structure is arranged at the front end of the ultrasonic transducer, so that shear waves are generated in the target to be detected through low-frequency vibration of the sound transmission structure, the two-dimensional B image guiding function of images is realized, and the instantaneous elastic detection quality is ensured.

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of an elasticity detecting device in a first embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of the elasticity detecting device of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a schematic view of a first shape of the sound transparent structure of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a schematic view of a second shape of the sound-transmitting structure of FIG. 1;

FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view of an elasticity detecting device according to a second embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 6 is a perspective view of the elastic detecting device in the third embodiment of FIG. 5;

the marks in the drawings are as follows:

ultrasonic transducer	1	Sound transmission structure	2	Upper end face of sound transmission structure	23
						Elastic medium	3	Raised portion	21	Lower end face of sound transmission structure	24
Outer casing	4	Sound transmission structure body	22	Connecting piece	6
						Driver(s)	5	Driving rod	51

Detailed Description

The invention provides an elasticity detection device, which is used for making the purpose, technical scheme and effect of the invention clearer and more definite, and the invention is further described in detail below by referring to the accompanying drawings and examples. It should be understood that the specific embodiments described herein are for purposes of illustration only and are not intended to limit the scope of the invention.

In the description and claims, unless the context specifically defines the terms "a," "an," "the," and "the" include plural referents. If there is a description of "first", "second", etc. in an embodiment of the present invention, the description of "first", "second", etc. is for descriptive purposes only and is not to be construed as indicating or implying a relative importance or implicitly indicating the number of technical features indicated. Thus, a feature defining "a first" or "a second" may explicitly or implicitly include at least one such feature.

It will be further understood that the terms "comprises" and/or "comprising," when used in this specification, specify the presence of stated features, integers, steps, operations, elements, and/or components, but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps, operations, elements, components, and/or groups thereof. It will be understood that when an element is referred to as being "connected" or "coupled" to another element, it can be directly connected or coupled to the other element or intervening elements may also be present. Further, "connected" or "coupled" as used herein may include wirelessly connected or wirelessly coupled. The term "and/or" as used herein includes all or any element and all combination of one or more of the associated listed items.

It will be understood by those skilled in the art that all terms (including technical and scientific terms) used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this invention belongs unless defined otherwise. It will be further understood that terms, such as those defined in commonly used dictionaries, should be interpreted as having a meaning that is consistent with their meaning in the context of the prior art and will not be interpreted in an idealized or overly formal sense unless expressly so defined herein.

In addition, the technical solutions of the embodiments may be combined with each other, but it is necessary to base that the technical solutions can be realized by those skilled in the art, and when the technical solutions are contradictory or cannot be realized, the combination of the technical solutions should be considered to be absent and not within the scope of protection claimed in the present invention.

Referring to fig. 1 to 3, the elasticity detecting device includes: the ultrasonic transducer 1 and the sound transmission structure 2 are arranged at the upper end of the detection surface of the ultrasonic transducer 1; the sound transmission structure 2 comprises a sound transmission structure body 22 and a protruding part 21, wherein the protruding part 21 is arranged at the top of the sound transmission structure body 22; the lower end surface of the sound transmission structure body 22 is matched with the shape of the detection surface of the ultrasonic transducer 1.

It will be appreciated that the elastic detection device further comprises a housing 4, a driver 5, and the ultrasound transducer 1 can be sealingly connected to the housing 4 by means of an elastic medium 3. The driver 5 is located in the housing 4 (in other embodiments, the driver may be partially located outside the housing 4) and is used to drive the ultrasonic transducer 1 to synchronously vibrate the sound-transmitting structure 2. It will be appreciated that the ultrasound transducer 1 may be a multi-array element ultrasound transducer.

It will be appreciated that the boss 21 is a boss relative to the acoustically transparent structural body 22. The boss 21 and the sound transparent structural body 22 may be of unitary design (i.e., they are integrated without distinct boundaries) or may be two separate pieces. The upper end surface 23 of the sound transmission structure (i.e. the upper end surface of the protruding part) is used for contacting with a target to be detected, the lower end surface 24 of the sound transmission structure is arranged on the detection surface of the ultrasonic transducer 1, and can be directly or indirectly fixed or integrally formed, and the integrally formed arrangement here refers to the integrally formed arrangement of the sound transmission structure 2 and the detection surface of the ultrasonic transducer 1. In this embodiment, the entire sound-transmitting structure 2 is cylindrical, that is, the sound-transmitting structure protruding portion 21 and the sound-transmitting structure body 22 are integrally designed, and the cross section of the sound-transmitting structure protruding portion 21 is the same as the cross section of the sound-transmitting structure body 22, that is, the cross sectional areas are equal (or the cross sectional areas of the sound-transmitting structures are uniform); it will be understood that the entire sound-transmitting structure 2 may be in a shape other than a cylinder, a square, or a table, and the corresponding sound-transmitting structure 2 may be a cylinder, a cuboid, a cube, or a table, or the sound-transmitting structure 2 may be a combination of two or more of the above shapes, although the sound-transmitting structure 2 may be in other shapes.

It will be appreciated that the lower end surface 24 of the sound-transmitting structure is directly fixed on the detection surface of the ultrasonic transducer, and the fixing manner may be to achieve fixing by adopting a sound-transmitting and adhesive manner. In one embodiment, the acoustically transparent structure 2 is arranged coaxially with the central axis of the ultrasonic transducer 1. The lower end surface 24 of the sound-transmitting structure (i.e., the lower end surface of the sound-transmitting structure body) is circular, and its diameter ranges from 5mm to 15mm. The shape of the lower end surface 24 of the sound transmission structure is matched with the shape of the joint of the detection surface of the corresponding ultrasonic transducer 1, namely when the ultrasonic transducer 1 is a linear array ultrasonic transducer, the detection surface of the ultrasonic transducer 1 is a plane or an approximate plane, and the lower end surface of the sound transmission structure is also a plane or an approximate plane; when the ultrasonic transducer 1 is a convex array ultrasonic transducer. At this time, the ultrasonic transducer detection surface is a convex curved surface, and the lower end surface of the corresponding sound transmission structure is a corresponding concave curved surface, so that the close fit between the sound transmission structure and the ultrasonic transducer detection surface is realized, and ultrasonic signals can be smoothly transmitted; the part of the sound transmission structure far away from the ultrasonic transducer detection surface is one or a combination of any two or more than two of a cylinder, a cuboid, a cube and a table-shaped body, or other shapes. The distance h between the upper end surface 23 of the sound transmission structure (i.e. the upper end surface of the protruding part) and the detection surface of the ultrasonic transducer 1 is 1mm to 20mm, preferably 3mm to 10mm, and the sound transmission structure 2 generates low-frequency instantaneous vibration under the action of the driver 5, so that shear waves suitable for instantaneous elastic detection are excited inside the object to be detected.

Specifically, the driver 5 may be a voice coil motor. The driver 5 mainly comprises a stator and a rotor (not shown), the stator of the driver is fixed with the shell 4, the driver (the rotor of the driver) is directly connected with the ultrasonic transducer 1 through a driving rod 51, the driver 5 can drive the ultrasonic transducer 1 to vibrate, when the sound transmission structure 2 and the ultrasonic transducer 1 are fixed together, under the action of the driver 5, the sound transmission structure protruding part 21 can generate instantaneous low-frequency vibration on the surface of a target to be detected, and then shear waves suitable for instantaneous elastography are excited inside the target to be detected. Finally, the shear wave can be detected and tracked by utilizing the multi-array element ultrasonic transducer 1, and the elastography detection can be realized by analysis. When the driver 5 drives the ultrasonic transducer 1 to vibrate, the ultrasonic transducer 1 and the shell 4 can move relatively, and the elastic medium 3 has the characteristic of telescopic deformation, so that the sealing of the outer surface of the elastic detection handle 4 can be still kept when the ultrasonic transducer 1 vibrates, and the ultrasonic transducer can be waterproof and convenient to sterilize. Specifically, the elastic medium 3 is approximately circular in shape, and has two ports at the upper and lower ends: in this embodiment, the first port is used for surrounding the periphery of the ultrasonic transducer and is in sealing fit connection, and the second port is in sealing and adhesive connection with the housing. In other embodiments, the first port may be configured to surround and sealingly connect to the sound-transmissive structural body,

in one embodiment of the invention, the bandwidth of the multi-array element ultrasonic transducer is in the range of 1-20 MHz. In this embodiment, the linear array ultrasonic transducer, and in other embodiments, the multi-array element ultrasonic transducer is a convex array ultrasonic transducer (as shown in fig. 6), or a phased array ultrasonic transducer (not shown in the figure). The size of the ultrasonic transducer is smaller, the width d1 of the ultrasonic transducer ranges from 5mm to 15mm, and the width d1 of the ultrasonic transducer can be preferably 7mm; the width d2 direction of the lower end face of the sound transmission structure 2 corresponds to the width d1 direction of the ultrasonic transducer. The length direction of the ultrasonic transducer is perpendicular to the width direction of the ultrasonic transducer, namely the length direction of the ultrasonic transducer is the array element array direction.

In order to reduce the influence of the side walls of the acoustically transparent structure on the propagation of the ultrasonic signal, such as refraction, reflection, etc., it is preferable that the dimension of the width d2 of the lower end face of the acoustically transparent structure is greater than, equal to, or about equal to the dimension of the width d1 of the ultrasonic transducer. Preferably, the width d1 dimension of the ultrasonic transducer is equal to the width d2 dimension of the lower end face of the sound-transmitting structure. The advantage of this arrangement is that the ultrasound signal emitted by the ultrasound signal is more immune to the lateral outer wall of the sound-transmitting structure in the width direction. In order to further reduce the influence of the sound-transmitting structure 2 on the ultrasonic signal, the sound-transmitting structure 2 may be further provided to be hollow, with a sound-transmitting liquid being built in. The fixing manner of the sound-transmitting structure 2 and the ultrasonic transducer 1 is not limited to the fixing manner by the lower end face of the sound-transmitting structure (the lower end face 24 of the sound-transmitting structure body) and the ultrasonic transducer detection face in the embodiment, but also can be fixed by the extension of the sound-transmitting structure body 22 in the width direction and the two sides of the ultrasonic transducer 1 in the width direction.

Referring to fig. 5, in one embodiment of the present invention, an elastic medium 3 is disposed between the sound transparent structure 2 and the housing 4 to achieve an integral sealing arrangement of the elastic handle. The sound-transmitting structure 2 is connected to the ultrasound transducer 1 by means of a connection piece 6. The connecting piece 6 is of a capsule cavity structure, and is internally provided with sound-permeable liquid. The connection piece 6 functions to maintain its connection with the ultrasound transducer 1 when the sound-transmitting structure 2 vibrates. The ultrasound transducer 1 is fixed to the housing 4, for example by a fixing plate, but may also be fixed in other ways. The driver 5 is directly connected to the sound-transmitting structure 2 through the driving rod 51, and drives the sound-transmitting structure 2 to perform low-frequency transient vibration through the driving rod 51. In this embodiment, the first port of the elastic medium 3 is connected around the sound-transmitting structure body 22 in a surrounding manner, so as to form a sealing connection, and the second port of the elastic medium is still connected with the elastic detection handle in a sealing manner. The two driving rods 51 are respectively connected and fixed on the two sides of the width of the lower end face of the sound transmission structure body along the two sides of the width direction of the ultrasonic transducer in an upward and forward extending mode, and the other ends of the two driving rods 51 are respectively and fixedly connected with the driver 5.

When the elastic detection device is used for carrying out instantaneous elastic imaging detection, the detection is mainly completed in two steps, and the first step is to excite shear waves suitable for instantaneous elastic detection; the second step is to detect and track the shear wave. After the shear wave is excited by the vibration action of the sound-transmitting structural protrusions 21, the excited shear wave is detected by the ultrasonic signal emitted from the ultrasonic transducer 1. Specifically, in the instantaneous elasticity detection, shear waves in the direction of the central axis of the vibrating portion (convex portion 21) (toward the target to be detected) are detected. In the specific implementation process, although the ultrasonic transducer 1 is a plurality of array elements, only a part of the array elements corresponding to the sound transmission structure are required to work when detecting the shear wave. When the shear wave detection is realized by utilizing a plurality of array elements, the shear wave detection can be realized in a multi-array element focusing emission mode, so that the signal-to-noise ratio of detection signals can be improved. The lower end surface 24 of the sound transmission structure body at least covers the part of the working array element of the ultrasonic transducer detection surface. In other embodiments, the lower end surface area 24 of the sound-transmitting structure is greater than the upper end surface area of the sound-transmitting structure boss. Specifically, the entire sound-transmitting structure 2 may be in a table shape, or may be in a truncated cone shape, as shown in fig. 4, the upper end surface 23 of the sound-transmitting structure is circular, and then gradually transitions downward, and the lower end surface 24 of the sound-transmitting structure body is rectangular. The lower end surface 24 of the sound transmission structure body is directly fixed on the detection surface of the ultrasonic transducer 1. The design is to cover more working array elements on the lower end face of the sound transmission structure body so as to realize that more array elements can perform elastic detection in a focusing mode.

It is to be understood that the invention is not limited in its application to the examples described above, but is capable of modification and variation in light of the above teachings by those skilled in the art, and that all such modifications and variations are intended to be included within the scope of the appended claims.

Claims

1. An elasticity detecting device comprising:

an ultrasonic transducer;

the sound transmission structure is arranged at the upper end of the ultrasonic transducer detection surface;

the sound transmission structure includes:

an acoustically transparent structural body;

the protruding part is arranged at the top of the sound transmission structure body;

the ultrasonic transducer is characterized in that the lower end face of the sound transmission structure body is matched with the detection surface of the ultrasonic transducer.

2. The elasticity detection apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the sound-transmitting structure is fixed to or integrally formed with the ultrasonic transducer detection surface.

3. The elasticity detecting device of claim 1, wherein the cross-sectional area of the sound-transmitting structure is uniform or the lower end surface area of the sound-transmitting structure is larger than the upper end surface area of the sound-transmitting structure.

4. The elasticity detecting device according to claim 1, wherein at least a portion of the sound-transmitting structure away from the ultrasonic transducer detecting surface is one of a cylinder, a rectangular parallelepiped, a square, a mesa, or a combination of any two or more thereof.

5. The elasticity detecting device of claim 1, wherein a distance between an upper end surface of the sound-transmitting structure and the ultrasonic transducer detecting surface is 1mm to 20mm.

6. The elasticity detection device of claim 1, wherein the ultrasonic transducer has a width d1 ranging between 5mm and 15mm.

7. The elasticity detection apparatus of claim 1, further comprising a housing, wherein the ultrasound transducer is connected to the housing by an elastic medium seal, or wherein the sound transparent structure is connected to the housing by an elastic medium seal.

8. The elasticity testing device of claim 1, wherein the lower face width dimension of the acoustically transparent structure is greater than, equal to, or about equal to the ultrasonic transducer width dimension.

9. The elasticity detection apparatus of claim 1, wherein the acoustically transparent structure is connected to the ultrasonic transducer by a connector.

10. The elasticity detection apparatus of claim 1, wherein the ultrasonic transducer is a phased array ultrasonic transducer or a convex array ultrasonic transducer.