JP2001087264A - Ultrasonograph - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an ultrasonograph for precisely inserting/extracting a puncture needle into/from a lesion part. SOLUTION: This ultrasonograph is provided with a holding part 3 for holding a puncture needle 2 installed in an ultrasonic wave transmitting/receiving part 1 for transmitting/receiving an ultrasonic wave to/from an examinee, a plate 4 having an elliptic opening part 41 for moving the holding part 3 in the inserting/ extracting direction of the puncture needle 2 and a thumb screw 5 penetrated through the opening part 41 for fixing the holding part 3 to an inserting/extracting directional prescribed position of the plate 4.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus having an ultrasonic probe having a holder for holding a puncture needle attached to an ultrasonic transmitter / receiver for transmitting / receiving ultrasonic waves to / from a subject. In particular, the present invention relates to an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus which is improved to accurately insert and remove a puncture needle into an affected part.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus obtains an ultrasonic image by bringing an ultrasonic transmitting / receiving section into contact with a body surface of an affected part such as a cancer cell in a subject, and displays the ultrasonic image on a display. While inserting a hollow puncture needle while bringing this puncture needle to the affected area,
Treatment such as injecting an anticancer drug into the affected area via the puncture needle has been performed.

[0003] An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus used for the above treatment comprises an ultrasonic wave transmitting / receiving section for transmitting / receiving ultrasonic waves to / from a subject and a holding section for holding a puncture needle attached to the ultrasonic wave transmitting / receiving section. It has a probe.

[0004] The holding portion has been variously devised so that a puncture needle can be easily punctured into an affected part, and the following two are mainly known technologies.

[0005] A first known technique includes a clip portion for holding a puncture needle and a support member for attaching the clip portion to the ultrasonic wave transmitting / receiving portion.

A second known technique is a clip portion for holding a puncture needle, a member for mounting the clip portion at an angle between the clip portion and the ultrasonic wave transmitting / receiving direction of the ultrasonic wave transmitting / receiving portion, and a mounting member. The apparatus has a support member fixed to a predetermined mounting angle and mounted on the ultrasonic wave transmitting / receiving unit.

[0007]

However, according to the first known technique, when the ultrasonic wave transmitting / receiving section has a curved surface, such as a convex shape, which is in contact with the object, the ultrasonic wave transmitting / receiving section has a curved surface. Depending on the positional relationship between the specimen and the body surface, the distance between the attachment position of the puncture needle and the puncture position on the body surface of the subject becomes larger. However, there is a problem that the puncture needle may not be able to puncture the affected part accurately due to the problem that the puncture needle bends due to a large stress acting from the direction of the puncture.

In the second known technique, since the angle between the clip and the ultrasonic wave transmitting / receiving section is free only in the ultrasonic wave transmitting / receiving direction, the operation in the insertion / removal direction of the puncture needle is supported. There was a problem that it was impossible to do it.

It is an object of the present invention to provide an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus for accurately inserting and removing a puncture needle from an affected part.

Another object of the present invention is to provide an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus which assists the operation of inserting and removing a puncture needle.

[0011]

An object of the present invention is to provide an ultrasonic wave transmitting / receiving section for transmitting / receiving ultrasonic waves to / from a subject and a holding section for holding a puncture needle attached to the ultrasonic wave transmitting / receiving section. In an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus provided with a probe, a first member capable of moving the holding unit to a position in the insertion / removal direction of the puncture needle, and the holding unit fixed to a predetermined position of the first member This is achieved by an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus, comprising:

[0012] The first member enables the holding portion to move in the insertion and removal direction of the puncture needle, and the second member includes the first member.
Since the holding portion is fixed at a predetermined position in the insertion / removal direction of the puncture needle of the member, the holding portion can be arbitrarily set in the insertion / removal direction of the puncture needle, so that the puncture needle can be accurately inserted / extracted into the affected part. In addition, it is possible to support the operation of inserting and removing the puncture needle.

[0013]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS One embodiment of the present invention will be described.
This will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is an external view showing an example of a so-called convex type of an ultrasonic probe adopting the present invention. FIG. 2 is a diagram in which the ultrasonic probe of FIG. 1 is brought into contact with a body surface of a subject. FIG. 3 is a diagram showing various aspects of FIG.

The ultrasonic probe has a holder 3 for holding a puncture needle 2 attached to an ultrasonic transmitter / receiver 1 for transmitting / receiving ultrasonic waves to / from a subject.

The holding section 3 has a clip section 6 for holding the puncture needle 2 and a knob section 7 attached to the clip section 6. The clip portion 6 is fixed with the puncture needle 2 therebetween. The knob portion 7 is designed so that the operator can hold it with a fingertip in order to move the entire holding portion 3 in the insertion and extraction direction of the puncture needle 2.

The plate 4 is a member capable of moving the holding portion 3 in the insertion / removal direction of the puncture needle 2, and the clip portion 6 has an elliptical opening 41 in the insertion / removal direction of the puncture needle 2. The knob screw 5 is a member for fixing the holding portion 3 at a predetermined position in the insertion / removal direction of the puncture needle 2 on the plate 4, and has one end fixed to the clip 6 and the other end provided separately from the knob portion 7.
1, a shaft 52 connected to both ends, and provided through the opening 41 of the plate 4;
A nut 53 is provided to fix the shaft 52 to the plate 4 by manually turning 1.

Since the holding portion 3, the plate 4, and the thumbscrew 5 are configured as described above, the clip portion 6 that sandwiches the puncture needle 2 can be moved in the insertion / removal direction of the puncture needle 2 in the following procedure. .

First, the surgeon manually turns the knob 51 at the other end of the shaft 52 to loosen the nut 53, and moves the shaft 52 along the opening 41 provided in the plate 4 in the insertion and removal direction of the puncture needle 2. A clip portion 6 is provided at one end of the shaft 52.
And the knob portion 7 are provided, so that the entire holding portion 3 moves with the shaft 9.

Next, after moving the holding part 3 to a desired position, the operator turns the knob 51 by hand to tighten the nut 53,
The shaft 52 is fixed to the plate 4. As a result, the entire holding section 3 is also fixed.

Here, the position desired by the operator is to move to a position where the distance between the holding section 3 and the body surface of the subject is minimized, as shown in FIG. Thus, by minimizing the distance between the holding unit 3 and the body surface of the subject,
The stress from the direction orthogonal to the insertion / removal direction of the puncture needle 2 can be reduced.

Next, the manner in which the ultrasonic probe is brought into contact with the subject will be described. The positional relationship between the holding unit 3 and the body surface of the subject will be described with reference to FIG. 3. FIG. 3 (a) shows that the affected part is under the skin near the center of the ultrasonic wave transmitting / receiving unit 1. FIG. 3 (b) shows an example in which the depth seen from the body surface of the subject is moderate when viewed from the body surface of the subject. FIG. 3 (c) shows an example in which the affected part is under the skin near the mounting side of the holding unit 3 of the ultrasonic wave transmitting / receiving unit 1 and the depth is small when viewed from the body surface of the subject.

Since the holding section 3 can be adjusted in the insertion / removal direction of the puncture needle 2, it is adjusted closer to the body surface of the subject than in the state of FIG. 3 (a) in FIG. 3 (b), and is adjusted in FIG. 3 (c). The adjustment may be made farther from the body surface of the subject than in the state of 3 (a).

Next, an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus provided with the above ultrasonic probe will be described.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a configuration example of the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus of the present invention.

The ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus comprises: an ultrasonic probe 11;
A signal supply processing unit 12 connected to the ultrasonic probe 11,
An image conversion unit 13 connected to the signal supply processing unit 12, an image display unit 14 connected to the image conversion unit 13, and each unit of the signal supply processing unit 12, the image conversion unit 13, and the image display unit 14 And a controller 15.

The ultrasonic probe 11 has a holder 3 for holding a puncture needle 2 attached to an ultrasonic transmitter / receiver 1 for transmitting / receiving ultrasonic waves to / from a subject. The signal supply processing unit 12 supplies a transmission signal to the ultrasonic transmission / reception unit 1 and performs signal processing such as amplifying a reception signal and phasing. The image conversion unit 13 converts a received signal output from the signal supply processing unit 12 into an ultrasonic image, and is a so-called digital scan converter. The image display unit 14 is the image conversion unit 1
An ultrasonic image converted in step 3 is displayed. Controller 1
Reference numeral 5 denotes a CPU that controls the above-described units.

Next, the operation of the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus will be described.

An operator contacts the ultrasonic wave transmitting / receiving unit 1 and turns on a wave transmitting switch (not shown). Signal supply processing unit 12
Causes the ultrasonic transmission / reception unit 1 to supply a transmission signal based on the transmission switch and amplify the reception signal to perform signal processing such as phasing. The image conversion unit 13 converts the received signal output from the signal supply processing unit 12 into an ultrasonic image. The image display unit 14 displays the ultrasonic image converted by the image conversion unit 13. The operator finds an affected part such as cancer cells of the subject from the ultrasonic image, and punctures the puncture needle 2 from the body surface of the subject to the affected part. At the time of this puncture, the position of the holder 3 in the insertion / removal direction of the puncture needle 2 is adjusted according to the depth of the affected part from the body surface of the subject, as described for the ultrasonic probe.

This adjustment minimizes the distance between the holding section 3 and the body surface of the subject, so that it becomes difficult to receive stress from a direction perpendicular to the insertion / removal direction of the puncture needle 2, so that the puncture needle 2 is bent. And the like can be almost eliminated.

Since the movable direction of the clip 6 with the puncture needle 2 interposed therebetween moves only in the direction of insertion and extraction of the puncture needle 2, it is only necessary to pay attention to the direction of movement of the puncture needle 2. Operation can be supported.

[0032]

The present invention has the following effects. (1) The puncture needle can be accurately inserted into and removed from the affected part. (2) It is possible to support the operation of inserting and removing the puncture needle.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an external view showing an example of an ultrasonic probe employed in an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an example in which the ultrasonic probe of FIG. 1 is brought into contact with a body surface of a subject.

FIG. 3 is a view showing various aspects of the ultrasonic probe of FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a configuration example of an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Ultrasonic wave transmission / reception part 2 Puncture needle 3 Holding part 4 Plate 5 Knob screw

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus comprising: an ultrasonic probe having an ultrasonic transmitting / receiving section for transmitting / receiving ultrasonic waves to / from a subject and a holding section for holding a puncture needle attached to the ultrasonic transmitting / receiving section. The apparatus includes a first member that enables the holding portion to move to a position in the insertion and removal direction of the puncture needle, and a second member that fixes the holding portion to a predetermined position of the first member. An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus characterized by the above-mentioned.