CN217040168U - Ultrasonic probe - Google Patents

Abstract

The application relates to an ultrasonic probe, which mainly comprises a holding unit, an acoustic head and a sound guide unit, wherein the acoustic head is fixed at the tail end of the holding unit and used for generating ultrasonic waves; the sound guide unit is arranged on the sound head and has a preset thickness, and the sound guide unit is used for conducting ultrasonic waves; the thickness of the sound guide unit is used for forming the sound guide distance of the ultrasonic probe and setting the position of a sound field focus; furthermore, the sound guiding unit comprises an acoustic lens with a pre-settable thickness and/or comprises a sound guiding assembly with a freely adjustable thickness. Because the thickness of the sound guide unit plays an important role in correctly focusing a sound field and the definition of the tissue image, the sound guide distance can be properly reached by presetting or adjusting the thickness of the sound guide unit, and even the sound field is focused to a shallower tissue position, so that the ultrasonic detection requirement of the superficial tissue of the small animal in some scenes is met, and the tissue image with high definition and high resolution corresponding to the region of interest in the superficial tissue is obtained through ultrasonic detection.

Description

Ultrasonic probe

Technical Field

The application relates to the technical field of ultrasonic detection, in particular to an ultrasonic probe.

Background

Veterinary ultrasonic diagnosis is an effective technical means for researching and diagnosing animal diseases by utilizing an ultrasonic principle, and related ultrasonic examination instruments are widely applied in the field of veterinarians due to the fact that ultrasonic examination has the clinical diagnosis characteristics of no tissue damage and no radiation hazard.

In the current ultrasonic examination of animals, a high-frequency ultrasonic probe for superficial contact with the skin surface of an animal is often used, so that a more ideal tissue image can be obtained for a larger animal, however, the image of superficial tissues or small organs is not clear and the resolution is poor for a smaller animal, which adversely affects the ultrasonic detection of a small animal.

Disclosure of Invention

The technical problem that this application mainly solved is: how to improve the definition of superficial tissue imaging in small animal ultrasound examinations.

In order to solve the above technical problem, the present application provides an ultrasonic probe, including: a holding unit; the sound head is fixed at the tail end of the holding unit and used for generating ultrasonic waves; the sound guide unit is arranged on the sound head and has a preset thickness; the sound guide unit is used for conducting the ultrasonic waves; the thickness of the sound guide unit is used for forming the sound guide distance of the ultrasonic probe, and the position of a focus of a sound field can be set.

In one embodiment, the sound guiding unit includes an acoustic lens as a front end of the ultrasonic probe and a thickness of the acoustic lens ranges from 1 to 10 mm.

In one embodiment, the sound guiding unit comprises a sound guiding assembly for coupling with the ultrasound probe for compensating a sound guiding distance of the ultrasound probe.

In one embodiment, the ultrasound probe further comprises an adjustment assembly movably connected with the sound guide assembly; the adjusting component is used for adjusting the thickness of the sound guide component and adjusting the position of a focus of a sound field by changing the sound guide distance of the ultrasonic probe.

In one embodiment, the sound guiding assembly comprises a coupling portion and a detection portion; the coupling part has a shape matched with the front end of the ultrasonic probe and can be tightly attached to the front end of the ultrasonic probe; the detection part is provided with a smooth end surface and is used for contacting the skin of a detected object and emitting ultrasonic waves; the thickness of the assembly formed by the coupling part and the detection part can compensate the sound guiding distance of the ultrasonic probe.

In one embodiment, the sound guiding assembly has an acoustic impedance that is continuous and equal to or close to the impedance of the superficial tissue of the subject.

In one embodiment, the sound guide component adopts deformable sound guide materials; the adjusting assembly comprises at least one moving part, and the moving part is used for stretching or compressing the sound guide assembly to deform the sound guide assembly; the thickness of the assembly formed by the coupling part and the detection part on the sound guide assembly is related to the deformation of the sound guide assembly.

In one embodiment, the moving part is a screw; one end of the screw is connected to the sound guide assembly, and the other end of the screw is connected to the ultrasonic probe; the screw, when rotated, stretches or compresses the sound guiding assembly.

In one embodiment, the screw is provided with a mark symbol, and the mark symbol is used for recording the rotation amount of the screw and the deformation size of the sound guide assembly.

In one embodiment, the moving part is a motor; the motor is used for being fixed on the ultrasonic probe, and a rotating shaft of the motor is connected with the sound guide assembly; the motor stretches or compresses the sound guide assembly by rotation of the rotation shaft when being electrically driven.

In one embodiment, the ultrasound probe further comprises a drive assembly; the drive is arranged in the ultrasonic probe and used for receiving a control signal sent by a host connected with the ultrasonic probe and responding to the control signal to carry out electric drive on the motor.

In one embodiment, the moving part is a guide sleeve; one end of the guide rail sleeve is sleeved on the outer side of the sound guide assembly, and the other end of the guide rail sleeve is movably connected to the ultrasonic probe; the guide rail sleeve stretches or compresses the sound guide assembly when moving relative to the ultrasonic probe.

In one embodiment, the adjustment assembly further comprises a lead screw or motor; the screw rod is screwed on the ultrasonic probe and is movably connected with the guide rail sleeve, and the screw rod is used for driving the guide rail sleeve to move relative to the ultrasonic probe when being manually rotated; the motor is fixed on the ultrasonic probe, the rotating shaft of the motor is movably connected with the guide rail sleeve, and the motor drives the guide rail sleeve to move relative to the ultrasonic probe when being driven by electric power.

In one embodiment, the adjustable thickness range of the sound guiding assembly is 2 to 40 mm.

The beneficial effect of this application is:

an ultrasonic probe according to the above embodiment mainly includes a holding unit, an acoustic head, and a sound guide unit, wherein the acoustic head is fixed to a distal end of the holding unit for generating ultrasonic waves; the sound guide unit is arranged on the sound head and has a preset thickness, and the sound guide unit is used for conducting ultrasonic waves; the thickness of the sound guide unit is used for forming the sound guide distance of the ultrasonic probe and setting the position of a sound field focus; furthermore, the sound guiding unit comprises an acoustic lens with a pre-settable thickness and/or comprises a sound guiding assembly with a freely adjustable thickness. On one hand, the sound guide distance of the ultrasonic probe determines the focus position of a sound field of ultrasonic waves generated by the sound head in the tissues of an object to be detected, so that the thickness of the sound guide unit has important influence on correct focusing of the sound field and the definition of the organized images, the proper sound guide distance can be reached by presetting or adjusting the thickness of the sound guide unit, even the sound field is focused to a shallower tissue position, and the ultrasonic detection requirement of superficial tissues of small animals in some scenes is met; on the other hand, the thickness of the sound guide unit in the ultrasonic probe can be preset or adjusted, so that convenience is provided for adjusting the sound guide distance of the ultrasonic probe, the focus of a sound field can be stabilized in the region of interest in superficial tissues by compensating the distance from the sound head to the superficial tissues of the detected object, the limitation that the sound guide distance in the conventional ultrasonic probe is not adjustable is overcome, the problem of poor imaging quality of the superficial tissues can be solved, and the high-definition and high-resolution tissue images corresponding to the region of interest in the superficial tissues can be obtained through ultrasonic detection.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is a schematic view illustrating an ultrasonic probe connected to a host computer for performing ultrasonic testing on a test object according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an ultrasound probe in an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of an embodiment of the present application in which a sound guide unit includes an acoustic lens;

FIG. 4 is a schematic illustration of an embodiment of the present application in which an acoustic lens of a predetermined thickness is used to contact superficial tissue for ultrasonic examination;

fig. 5 is a block diagram of a sound guiding unit comprising a sound guiding assembly according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 6 is a schematic view of a guide sleeve and a lead screw with a sound guide assembly mounted thereon according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 7 is a schematic view illustrating a guide rail sleeve sleeved with a sound guide assembly according to an embodiment of the present application in cooperation with a motor.

FIG. 8 is a schematic illustration of an embodiment of the present application in an ultrasonic testing procedure using an adjustable thickness sound guide assembly in contact with superficial tissue.

Detailed Description

The present application will be described in further detail with reference to the following detailed description and accompanying drawings. Wherein like elements in different embodiments have been given like element numbers associated therewith. In the following description, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a better understanding of the present application. However, those skilled in the art will readily recognize that some of the features may be omitted or replaced with other elements, materials, methods in different instances. In some instances, certain operations related to the present application have not been shown or described in this specification in order not to obscure the core of the present application with unnecessary detail, and it is not necessary for those skilled in the art to describe these operations in detail, so that they may be fully understood from the description in the specification and the general knowledge in the art.

Furthermore, the described features, operations, or characteristics may be combined in any suitable manner to form various embodiments. Also, the various steps or actions in the method descriptions may be transposed or transposed in order, as will be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art. Thus, the various sequences in the specification and drawings are for the purpose of describing certain embodiments only and are not intended to imply a required sequence unless otherwise indicated where such sequence must be followed.

The ordinal numbers used herein for the components, such as "first," "second," etc., are used merely to distinguish between the objects described, and do not have any sequential or technical meaning. The term "connected" and "coupled" as used herein includes both direct and indirect connections (couplings), unless otherwise specified.

In the ultrasonic examination of animals, the apparatus used is an ultrasonic detector, such as fig. 1, which mainly comprises a main machine 1 and an ultrasonic probe 2. Fig. 1 illustrates the principle of ultrasonic detection of an object 3 (such as a small animal) by an ultrasonic probe 2 connected to a main machine 1, wherein the ultrasonic probe 2 is used for contacting the body surface skin of the object 3, transmitting ultrasonic waves to an examined part (such as superficial tissue) on the inner side of the skin, receiving the reflected ultrasonic waves and converting the ultrasonic waves into a detection signal, and transmitting the detection signal to the main machine 1; the main unit 1 is configured to process the detection signal, form and display a tissue image of the examined region, so that a user, such as a medical staff, can perform pathological judgment on the condition of the examined region by observing the displayed tissue image.

For animals with small body sizes, some detected parts are close to the skin surface, especially superficial tissues are very thin, so that when a high-frequency ultrasonic probe for superficial contacting the skin surface of the animal, the ultrasonic reachable detection parts can only adapt to the thickness of 10-20 mm, which can cause the ultrasonic images of the superficial tissues of the animal to appear unclear and the resolution ratio to be poor. In order to improve the resolution of the ultrasonic image, it is necessary to compensate the distance from the sound head to the superficial tissue in the ultrasonic probe, and focus the sound field of the high-frequency probe to the superficial region of interest, so that the focus of the sound field can be stably maintained in the superficial tissue region.

Based on the above consideration, in the present application, the structure of the common ultrasound probe is optimally designed, so as to compensate the distance from the sound head in the ultrasound probe to the superficial tissue of the object to be detected, thereby adjusting the focus of the sound field to the interested superficial region, so as to obtain a clear tissue image through ultrasound detection.

In one embodiment, referring to fig. 1 and 2, the ultrasound probe 2 mainly includes a holding unit 21, a sound head 22 and a sound guiding unit 23, which are described below.

The holding unit 21 may be a handle suitable for holding by human hand, one end of the handle is equipped with a sound head 22 and a sound guide unit 23, and the other end of the handle is equipped with a power line and a signal line and is connected to the main machine 1. In addition, the interior of the holding unit 21 may also form a cavity for assembling some hardware circuits such as power protection and signal processing.

The sonic head 22 is fixed to the end of the grip unit 21 and mainly functions to generate ultrasonic waves. For example, the applicator 22 may include a high frequency signal generator that generates a high frequency signal and an ultrasonic transducer device (not shown in FIG. 2) that converts the high frequency signal into ultrasonic waves. Since the sound head 22 is often of a flat and long structure and is wider than the holding unit 21, an enlarged fitting portion (e.g., a horn shape) extending outward may be provided at the end of the holding unit 21, so that the sound head 21 is fittingly mounted on the fitting portion.

The sound guide unit 23 is disposed on the sound head 22 and has a predetermined thickness, and the sound guide unit 23 is used for guiding the ultrasonic waves. For example, the sound guide unit 23 is disposed on a propagation path of the ultrasonic wave for guiding the ultrasonic wave for a distance to emit the ultrasonic wave. Furthermore, the sound guide unit 23 is used to contact the body surface skin of the examined object 3, so that the ultrasonic waves emitted from the sound guide unit 23 directly pass through the skin and reach the examined part (such as superficial tissue) on the inner side, and are focused on the examined part to form a focus of the sound field of the ultrasonic waves.

Note that the thickness of the sound guiding unit 23 is used to constitute a sound guiding distance of the ultrasonic probe 2, and the position of the sound field focus can be set according to the thickness of the ultrasonic unit 23. On the one hand, since the sound guiding unit 23 is disposed on the propagation path of the ultrasonic wave and can guide the transmission of the ultrasonic wave, the ultrasonic wave enters from one end of the sound guiding unit 23 and is output from the other end of the sound guiding unit 23, and the transmission distance of the ultrasonic wave in the sound guiding unit 23 is the thickness of the sound guiding unit 23. On the other hand, since the distance between the focus of the sound field of the ultrasonic wave and the sound head 22 is constant, and the sound guide unit 23 of the ultrasonic probe 2 and the skin of the subject 2 are present between the sound head 22 and the examined portion, the thicker the sound guide unit 23 is, the closer the focus of the sound field is to the inner side of the skin, and in the case where the thickness of the skin cannot be changed, if the sound guide unit 23 has an appropriate thickness, the focus of the sound field can be stabilized in the superficial region of the inner side of the skin to be focused on the superficial tissue, so that the thickness of the ultrasonic unit 23 directly determines the focus position of the focus of the sound field on the superficial tissue of the subject 3.

It should be noted that, because the sound guiding distance of the ultrasonic probe 2 determines the focal position of the sound field of the ultrasonic wave generated by the sound head 22 in the tissue of the object to be detected, the thickness of the sound guiding unit 23 has an important influence on the correct focusing of the sound field and the definition of the image formed by the tissue, and the proper sound guiding distance can be achieved by presetting or adjusting the thickness of the sound guiding unit 23, even the sound field is focused to a shallow tissue position, so as to meet the ultrasonic detection requirement of the superficial tissue of the animal in some scenes.

In one embodiment, an ultrasound receiving device (not shown in fig. 2) may be further integrated in the sound head 22, and the ultrasound receiving device is configured to receive the reflected ultrasound waves and convert the reflected ultrasound waves into a detection signal for transmission to the host computer 1, where the detection signal is used to form an ultrasound image of the examined region, and if the examined region is superficial tissues, the formed ultrasound image is a tissue image. It can be understood that the ultrasonic waves emitted from the sound guide unit 23 are reflected after reaching the detected part, the reflected ultrasonic waves pass through the skin of the detected object 3 and then are transmitted back along the sound guide unit 23 so as to be received by the ultrasonic receiving device, and the reflected ultrasonic waves are converted into the electrical signals in analog or digital form, i.e., the detection signals.

In one embodiment, referring to fig. 1, 2 and 3, the sound guide unit 23 includes an acoustic lens 231, the acoustic lens 231 may be a sound guide material for transmitting ultrasonic waves, and the acoustic lens 231 may be regarded as a sound guide pad, and has an effect similar to an optical lens, so that the name is given except that the object transmitted by the acoustic lens 231 is ultrasonic waves, not light. The acoustic lens 231 as the front end of the ultrasound probe 2 can be in direct contact with the skin of the subject 3, and then the acoustic lens 231 can emit the ultrasound toward the skin of the subject 3 and reach the superficial tissue inside the skin. Based on the function of the sound guiding unit 23, the thickness of the acoustic lens 231 not only constitutes the sound guiding distance of the ultrasonic probe 2, but also the thickness of the acoustic lens 231 determines the focal position of the sound field focal point on the superficial tissue; in order to be able to shift the focus of the sound field up to the superficial region of the object to be examined, a thickness range of the acoustic lens 231 may be set in advance, for example, the thickness range is 1 to 10 mm.

For example, the principle of ultrasound detection using an acoustic lens of a predetermined thickness in contact with superficial tissue is illustrated in fig. 4. The superficial tissue is the examined part and is positioned in a superficial region which is interested by a user, effective ultrasonic examination and tissue imaging can be carried out on the superficial tissue only by moving the focus of the sound field into the superficial region, the Z1 at the upper part of the superficial region represents the body surface skin of the examined object 3, and the Z2 at the lower part of the superficial region represents a critical line between the superficial region and the next layer of the body region. In fig. 4, the left ultrasound probe 4 is a general probe with a thin acoustic lens, the thickness of the acoustic lens is even negligible, when the ultrasound probe 4 contacts the body surface of the object 3, the focal point of the acoustic field of the emitted ultrasound wave will be located at a, and since a is located in the next layer body inner region of the relatively superficial region, the acoustic field focusing on the superficial tissue in the superficial region cannot be performed, which may cause the situations of ultrasound detection failure and unclear tissue imaging. In fig. 4, the ultrasound probe 2 on the right side is an optimized probe with a thickened acoustic lens, the thickness of the acoustic lens 231 can be preset within the thickness range of x1 (i.e., x1 e [1,10mm ]), when the ultrasound probe 2 contacts the body surface of the object 3 to be examined, the focal point of the acoustic field of the emitted ultrasound waves will be located at b, and since the focal point of the acoustic field is shifted from the previously focused a to b, and b is located in the superficial region close to the body surface, the acoustic field focusing can be performed on superficial tissues in the superficial region, thereby performing effective ultrasound detection on the superficial tissues, and obtaining a clear and high-resolution tissue image corresponding to the superficial tissues.

It should be noted that, in fig. 4, due to the thickened design of the acoustic lens 231, the acoustic guiding distance in the ultrasonic transmission process is increased, so that the position of the focus of the acoustic field in the body of the object to be examined is changed, and the focus of the acoustic field can move up from the position a of the inner region of the next layer body to the position b of the superficial region, so that the ultrasonic waves are focused on the superficial tissues in the superficial region, and the ultrasonic detection requirements of the superficial tissues of many small animals are met.

In one embodiment, referring to fig. 1, 2 and 5, the sound guiding unit 23 comprises a sound guiding assembly 232, and the sound guiding assembly 232 is coupled with the front end of the ultrasound probe 2 for compensating the sound guiding distance of the ultrasound probe 2. It can be understood that, even if the ultrasonic probe has the acoustic lens 231, it may not have a more suitable sound guiding distance, and the sound guiding assembly 232 is required to compensate the sound guiding distance of the ultrasonic probe 2, so as to compensate the sound guiding distance to a proper state, thereby stably maintaining the focus of the sound field in the superficial region of the object 3. In some cases, the sound guiding assembly 232 can be regarded as a sound guiding distance compensator, which is suitable for covering the sound head 22 and just wrapping the sound head 22.

In one embodiment, referring to fig. 1, 2 and 5, the ultrasound probe 2 further includes an adjusting assembly 24, the adjusting assembly 24 is movably connected to the sound guiding assembly 232, the adjusting assembly 24 is used for adjusting the thickness of the sound guiding assembly 232, and since the thickness of the sound guiding assembly 232 constitutes the sound guiding distance of the ultrasound probe 2, the position of the focus of the sound field can be adjusted by changing the sound guiding distance of the ultrasound probe 232, so that the focus of the sound field is stabilized at the examined part of the examined object 3.

In one embodiment, referring to fig. 5, the sound guidance assembly 232 includes a coupling portion 2321 and a detection portion 2322. The coupling 2321 has a shape adapted to the front end of the ultrasonic probe 2, and can be closely attached to the front end of the ultrasonic probe 2; for example, if the front end of the ultrasonic probe 2 is the acoustic lens 231 and the acoustic lens 231 has an arc shape, the coupling portion 2321 of the sound guiding assembly 232 also has an arc shape adapted to the acoustic lens, so that the coupling portion 2321 can tightly fit on the outer surface of the acoustic lens 231, and the ultrasonic wave emitted from the acoustic lens 231 can directly enter the sound guiding assembly 232 for sound guiding transmission. The detection unit 2322 has a smooth end surface for contacting the body surface skin of the subject 3 and emitting ultrasonic waves. It can be understood that the ultrasonic wave generated by the acoustic head 22 passes through the acoustic lens 231, enters the acoustic guide assembly 232 through the coupling portion 2321, and then exits from the detecting portion 2322, the thickness of the assembly formed by the coupling portion 2321 and the detecting portion 2322 (i.e. the thickness of the acoustic guide assembly 232 in the ultrasonic wave transmission direction) can compensate the acoustic guide distance of the ultrasonic probe 2, and can also compensate the distance from the acoustic head 22 to the superficial tissue of the object 3, so that the distance from the acoustic head 22 to the superficial tissue of the object 3 is the thickness of the acoustic lens 231 + the thickness of the acoustic guide assembly 232 + the thickness of the skin of the object 3, wherein the thickness of the acoustic guide assembly 232 can be flexibly adjusted through the adjusting assembly 24 to achieve the effect of acoustic guide distance compensation.

In one embodiment, the sound guiding assembly 232 has a continuous acoustic impedance and the acoustic impedance is equal to or close to the impedance of the superficial tissue of the subject 3. It can be understood that when the acoustic impedance of the sound guide component 232 is close to the impedance of animal soft tissue, the continuity of the acoustic impedance in the process of ultrasonic transmission can be ensured, and the external interference can be reduced.

In one embodiment, the sound guide assembly 232 is made of a deformable sound guide material, such as a silicone material, such that the sound guide assembly 232 is deformed to form different assembly thicknesses. Further, the adjustment assembly 24 comprises at least one moving part (not illustrated in fig. 5) for stretching or compressing the sound guide assembly 232 to deform the sound guide assembly 232; the thickness of the sound guide unit 232, which is formed by the coupling unit 2321 and the detection unit 2322, is related to the amount of strain of the sound guide unit 232. Generally, when the sound guide assembly 232 is stretched and deformed by the stretching of the moving part, the thickness of the assembly will increase, of course, the stretching force determines the degree of the stretching deformation and has a positive correlation with the thickness of the assembly, and the thickness of the assembly under stretching is greater than the thickness of the assembly under the state without external force (i.e., the completely released state); when the sound guide assembly 232 is compressed and deformed by the compression of the moving part, the thickness of the assembly is reduced, the compression force determines the compression deformation degree and is in positive correlation with the thickness of the assembly, and the thickness of the assembly under compression is smaller than that of the assembly under the state without external force action (namely, the complete release state).

It should be noted that the thickness of the sound guide assembly 232 should be flexibly adjusted according to the actual ultrasonic testing requirements. If the examined site (e.g., superficial tissue) is at a relatively shallow location within the small animal body, the acoustic guide assembly 232 requires a greater thickness to compensate for the longer acoustic guide distance; if the examined region is located relatively deep inside the small animal body, the sound guide member 232 needs to have a small thickness to compensate for the short sound guide distance. The placement of the acoustic guide assembly 232 is either in tension or in compression depending on the thickness to which the acoustic guide assembly 232 should be attached and the acoustic distance to which the compensating ultrasound probe 2 should be attached. For example, assuming that the thickness of the sound guide assembly 232 in the state of no external force is 30mm, the sound guide assembly 232 is compressed by the adjusting assembly 24 to satisfy the thickness requirement of 20mm if the thickness which should be achieved in the application is 20mm, and the sound guide assembly 232 is stretched by the adjusting assembly 24 to satisfy the thickness requirement of 40mm if the thickness which should be achieved in the application is 40 mm.

It should be noted that each moving portion may be disposed on a side surface of the sound guide assembly 232, the number of the moving portions may be freely set according to needs, and the greater the number of the moving portions, the better the effect of deformation of the sound guide assembly 232 is. In addition, in order to meet the requirement of compensating the sound guiding distance of the ultrasonic probe 2 in most scenes, the adjustable thickness range of the sound guiding component 232 generated by self deformation is 2-40 mm.

In one embodiment, adjustment assembly 24 includes a moving portion that is a screw (not shown in fig. 5) such that one end of the screw is coupled to sound guide assembly 232 and the other end of the screw is adapted to be coupled to ultrasound probe 2 such that the screw, when rotated, stretches or compresses sound guide assembly 232. For example, in one case, the side of the sound guide assembly 232 has a through hole for assembling a screw, and the through hole can clamp the head of the screw, and the side of the sound head 22 in the ultrasonic probe 2 is fixed with a nut for assembling the screw, so that when the screw rotates on the nut, the head of the screw can move along the through hole to the direction of the nut, thereby compressing the sound guide assembly 232, so that the thickness of the sound guide assembly 232 is reduced. For example, in another case, the side of the sound guide assembly 232 has a groove for assembling a screw, and the groove can lock the tail of the screw, and the side of the sound head 22 in the ultrasonic probe 2 is fixed with a nut for assembling the screw, so that when the screw is rotated on the nut, the tail of the screw can jack up the groove and move away from the nut, thereby stretching the sound guide assembly 232, so that the thickness of the sound guide assembly 232 is increased.

Further, in order to facilitate the user to know the thickness of the sound guide assembly 232 in real time, a mark symbol may be provided on the screw, and the mark symbol is used to record the rotation amount of the screw and the deformation of the sound guide assembly 232. It can be understood that the mark symbol may be a numerical scale or a color with gradual distribution, and the rotation amount of the screw can be known by observing the mark symbol, and the size of the deformation generated by stretching or compressing the sound guide assembly 232 can also be known, so as to know the current thickness of the sound guide assembly 232.

In one embodiment, the moving part of the adjusting assembly 24 is a motor (not shown in fig. 5), the motor is configured to be fixed on the ultrasonic probe 2, a rotating shaft of the motor is connected with the sound guide assembly 232, and the motor stretches or compresses the sound guide assembly 232 through the rotation of the rotating shaft when being driven by electricity. For example, a motor body is fixed to a side of the acoustic head 22 in the ultrasonic probe 2, an external thread is provided on a rotating shaft of the motor, and a nut or a screw hole adapted to the rotating shaft of the motor is provided on a side of the sound guide assembly 232, so that the rotating shaft of the motor rotates forward to pull the nut or the screw hole on the sound guide assembly 232 to move in a direction close to the motor body under the condition of electric drive of the motor, thereby compressing the sound guide assembly 232 and reducing the thickness of the sound guide assembly 232; of course, the rotation of the motor shaft can pull the nut or screw hole on the sound guide assembly 232 to move away from the motor body, so as to pull the sound guide assembly 232, and the thickness of the sound guide assembly 232 is increased.

Further, in order to precisely control the rotation stroke of the motor shaft, the ultrasonic probe 2 may further include a driving assembly (not illustrated in fig. 5), which may be disposed inside the ultrasonic probe 2, such as inside the holding unit 21. The driving component can be a motor driving circuit and is mainly used for receiving a control signal sent by a host 1 connected with the ultrasonic probe 2 and responding to the control signal to drive the motor electrically, the rotating stroke of the motor rotating shaft is changed by controlling the rotating direction, the rotating speed and the rotating time of the motor rotating shaft, the size of deformation generated by stretching or compressing the sound guide component 232 can be adjusted, and the current thickness of the sound guide component 232 is adjusted. It can be understood that the host 1 can be provided with a control key of the motor, and a user can send a control signal to the driving component when triggering the control key; of course, the host 1 can also automatically send a control signal to the driving assembly according to the definition of the tissue image obtained by the ultrasonic detection.

In one embodiment, referring to fig. 5, 6 and 7, the moving part of the adjusting assembly 24 is a guide sleeve 240, one end of the guide sleeve 240 is sleeved on the outer side of the sound guide assembly 232, and the other end of the guide sleeve 240 is movably connected to the ultrasonic probe 2, for example, the other end of the guide sleeve 240 is movably connected to the outer side of the sound head 22. Because guide sleeve 240 serves as a form restraint for sound guiding assembly 232 and guide sleeve 240 is movable on ultrasound probe 2, guide sleeve 240 stretches or compresses sound guiding assembly 232 as it moves relative to the ultrasound probe. For example, the movable connection between the inner side of one end of the guide rail sleeve 240 and the outer side of the sound head 22 is a tight fit, and then the guide rail sleeve 240 can be moved relative to the ultrasonic probe 2 by manually pressing or pulling the guide rail sleeve 240, so that the thickness of the sound guide assembly 232 is reduced when the sound guide assembly 232 is pressed, and the thickness of the sound guide assembly 232 is increased when the sound guide assembly 232 is pulled.

In one embodiment, to precisely control the movement stroke of the guide sleeve 240, the adjustment assembly 24 may further include a lead screw 241, see fig. 6 in particular. The screw rod 241 is screwed on the ultrasonic probe 2 and movably connected to the guide rail sleeve 240, for example, a thread is provided at one end of the guide rail sleeve 240, and the screw rod 241 and the guide rail sleeve 240 are rotatably engaged through the thread. It can be understood that the lead screw 241 is used for driving the guide rail sleeve 240 to move relative to the ultrasonic probe 2 when being manually rotated; the screw 241 rotates forward to drive the guide sleeve 240 to press the sound guide assembly 232, so that the thickness of the sound guide assembly 232 is reduced, and the screw 241 rotates backward to drive the guide sleeve 240 to stretch the sound guide assembly 232, so that the thickness of the sound guide assembly 232 is increased.

In one embodiment, in order to precisely control the movement stroke of the guide rail sleeve 240, the adjusting assembly 24 may further include a motor 242, see fig. 7 in particular, the motor 242 is fixed on the ultrasonic probe 2, and the rotating shaft of the motor 242 is movably connected with the guide rail sleeve 240, for example, when a thread is provided at one end of the guide rail sleeve 240, the rotating shaft of the motor 242 is rotatably matched with the guide rail sleeve 240 through the thread. It is understood that the motor 242, when electrically driven, drives the guide rail sleeve 240 to move relative to the ultrasonic probe 2; the guide sleeve 240 is driven to press the sound guide assembly 232 when the motor 242 rotates forward so as to reduce the thickness of the sound guide assembly 232, and the guide sleeve 240 is driven to stretch the sound guide assembly 232 when the motor 242 rotates backward so as to increase the thickness of the sound guide assembly 232. In addition, referring to fig. 7, two buttons 243 may be further disposed on the holding unit 21 of the ultrasonic probe 2, where the buttons 243 are used to control the start and stop of the motor 242, and the motor 242 rotates forward when one button is pressed and rotates backward when the other button is pressed, so that the user can control the motor 242 at any time while holding the ultrasonic probe 2, so as to flexibly adjust the thickness of the sound guide assembly 232.

For example, the principle of ultrasonic testing using an adjustable thickness sound guide assembly 232 to contact superficial tissue is illustrated in FIG. 8. The superficial tissue is the examined part and is positioned in a superficial region which is interested by a user, effective ultrasonic examination and tissue imaging can be carried out on the superficial tissue only by moving the focus of the sound field into the superficial region, the Z1 at the upper part of the superficial region represents the body surface skin of the examined object 3, and the Z2 at the lower part of the superficial region represents a critical line between the superficial region and the next layer of the body region. In fig. 8, the ultrasonic probe 4 on the left side is a common probe with a thin acoustic lens and no acoustic guide component, and the thickness of the acoustic lens is even negligible, when the ultrasonic probe 4 contacts the body surface of the object 3, the focal point of the acoustic field of the emitted ultrasonic wave will be located at a, and since a is located in the next layer body inner region of the relatively superficial region, the acoustic field focusing on the superficial tissue in the superficial region cannot be performed, which may cause the failure of ultrasonic detection and the unclear tissue imaging. In fig. 8, the ultrasound probe 2 on the right side is an optimized probe with the acoustic guide assembly 232, the thickness of the acoustic guide assembly 232 can be flexibly adjusted within the thickness range of x2 (i.e. x2 e [2,40mm ]) by the adjusting assembly 24, when the ultrasound probe 2 contacts the body surface of the object 3 to be examined, the focus of the sound field of the emitted ultrasonic wave will be stabilized at b, and since the focus of the sound field is moved from a, which was focused in the past, to b, and b is located in the superficial region close to the body surface, the sound field focusing can be performed on the superficial tissue in the superficial region, so as to perform effective ultrasound detection on the superficial tissue and obtain a clear and high-resolution tissue image corresponding to the superficial tissue.

It should be noted that, in the above embodiment, on the basis of not developing an ultrasound probe again, the acoustic lens 231 with a preset thickness and/or the acoustic guide assembly 232 with an adjustable thickness may be added to the front end of a common ultrasound probe, and these components are used as a compensation device for acoustic guide distance, so that the position of the focus of the sound field may be flexibly changed according to the actual needs of ultrasound detection, and meanwhile, the continuity of acoustic impedance may be ensured, and under the condition that the sound field effectively focuses on the superficial tissue of the object 3 to be detected, a tissue image with high definition and high resolution may be obtained through ultrasound detection, thereby satisfying the ultrasound detection of animals with different volumes and the ultrasound detection of different superficial parts.

It should be noted that, in the above-mentioned embodiment, since the thickness of the sound guiding unit 23 in the ultrasound probe can be preset or adjusted, for example, the thickness is preset by the acoustic lens 231, and the thickness is adjusted by the sound guiding assembly 232, this provides convenience for adjusting the sound guiding distance of the ultrasound probe 2, and the focus of the sound field can be stabilized in the region of interest in the superficial tissue by compensating the distance from the acoustic head 22 to the superficial tissue of the object 3 to be examined, which not only overcomes the limitation that the sound guiding distance in the ultrasound probe 2 is not adjustable in the past, but also solves the problem of poor imaging quality of the superficial tissue, so that the ultrasound probe obtains a high-definition and high-resolution tissue image corresponding to the region of interest in the superficial tissue.

The above description is provided for the purpose of explaining the present application by using specific examples, which are only used for assisting understanding of the technical solutions of the present application, and are not intended to limit the present application. Numerous simple deductions, modifications or substitutions may also be made by those skilled in the art in light of the teachings of this application.

Claims (14)

1. An ultrasound probe, comprising:

a holding unit;

the sound head is fixed at the tail end of the holding unit and used for generating ultrasonic waves;

the sound guide unit is arranged on the sound head and has a preset thickness; the sound guide unit is used for conducting the ultrasonic waves;

the thickness of the sound guide unit is used for forming the sound guide distance of the ultrasonic probe, and the position of the focus of a sound field can be set.

2. The ultrasound probe of claim 1, wherein the sound guiding unit comprises an acoustic lens as a front end of the ultrasound probe and a thickness of the acoustic lens ranges from 1 to 10 mm.

3. The ultrasound probe of claim 1, wherein the sound guiding unit comprises a sound guiding assembly for coupling with the ultrasound probe for compensating for a sound guiding distance of the ultrasound probe.

4. The ultrasound probe of claim 3, further comprising an adjustment assembly that is movably connected to the sound guidance assembly; the adjusting component is used for adjusting the thickness of the sound guide component and adjusting the position of a focus of a sound field by changing the sound guide distance of the ultrasonic probe.

5. The ultrasound probe of claim 4, wherein the sound conduction assembly comprises a coupling portion and a detection portion;

the coupling part has a shape matched with the front end of the ultrasonic probe and can be tightly attached to the front end of the ultrasonic probe;

the detection part is provided with a smooth end surface and is used for contacting the skin of a detected object and emitting ultrasonic waves;

the thickness of the assembly formed by the coupling part and the detection part can compensate the sound guide distance of the ultrasonic probe.

6. The ultrasound probe of claim 3, wherein the acoustic guide assembly has a continuous acoustic impedance and the acoustic impedance is equal to or close to the impedance of superficial tissue of the subject.

7. The ultrasound probe of claim 5, wherein the acoustic guide assembly employs a deformable acoustic guide material;

the adjusting assembly comprises at least one moving part, and the moving part is used for stretching or compressing the sound guide assembly to deform the sound guide assembly;

the thickness of the assembly formed by the coupling part and the detection part on the sound guide assembly is related to the deformation of the sound guide assembly.

8. The ultrasound probe of claim 7, wherein the moving part is a screw;

one end of the screw is connected to the sound guide assembly, and the other end of the screw is connected to the ultrasonic probe; the screw, when rotated, stretches or compresses the sound guiding assembly.

9. The ultrasound probe of claim 8, wherein the screw is provided with a marker for recording the amount of rotation of the screw and the amount of deformation of the sound directing assembly.

10. The ultrasound probe of claim 7, wherein the moving part is a motor;

the motor is used for being fixed on the ultrasonic probe, and a rotating shaft of the motor is connected with the sound guide assembly; the motor stretches or compresses the sound guide assembly through rotation of the rotating shaft when being driven by electricity.

11. The ultrasound probe of claim 10, further comprising a drive assembly; the drive assembly is arranged in the ultrasonic probe and used for receiving a control signal sent by a host connected with the ultrasonic probe and responding to the control signal to drive the motor electrically.

12. The ultrasound probe of claim 7, wherein the moving part is a guide sleeve;

one end of the guide rail sleeve is sleeved on the outer side of the sound guide assembly, and the other end of the guide rail sleeve is movably connected to the ultrasonic probe; the guide rail sleeve stretches or compresses the sound guide assembly when moving relative to the ultrasonic probe.

13. The ultrasound probe of claim 12, wherein the adjustment assembly further comprises a lead screw or a motor;

the screw rod is screwed on the ultrasonic probe and is movably connected with the guide rail sleeve, and the screw rod is used for driving the guide rail sleeve to move relative to the ultrasonic probe when being manually rotated;

the motor is fixed on the ultrasonic probe, the rotating shaft of the motor is movably connected with the guide rail sleeve, and the motor drives the guide rail sleeve to move relative to the ultrasonic probe when being driven by electric power.

14. The ultrasound probe of any of claims 3 to 13, wherein the adjustable thickness of the sound guiding assembly ranges from 2 to 40 mm.

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