JP2798710B2 - Ultrasound endoscope device - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Industrial Application Field] The present invention is provided with a means for obtaining an optical image and a means for obtaining an ultrasonic image at a distal end portion, and is capable of observing an inside of a body cavity and observing a diseased area deep in a body cavity. The present invention relates to an ultrasonic endoscope capable of confirming an ultrasonic diagnostic position.

[Conventional technology]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, an ultrasonic endoscope has been used to find a tumor or the like formed in a body cavity, for example, inside a stomach wall or outside a stomach. In such an ultrasonic endoscope, an insertion section provided with an ultrasonic probe of the endoscope is inserted into a body cavity, and is suitable for ultrasonic transmission to a space between the ultrasonic probe and an affected part inside the body cavity. An ultrasonic probe has been driven by arranging a balloon containing a medium, for example, physiological saline, to perform ultrasonic observation. In this case, it was difficult to correlate the ultrasonic observation image with the visual observation site because the region where the ultrasonic wave was irradiated was unknown, and it was difficult to operate to obtain an accurate tomographic plane of the diagnosis site. .

Therefore, in Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No. 58-15701, a light emitting surface for emitting detection light is formed at a desired portion of a rigid head portion including an ultrasonic probe, and the detection light from the light emitting surface is transmitted to the skin from outside the body. A configuration is described in which the transmission direction of an ultrasonic transmission surface in a predetermined direction from the light emitting surface is visually confirmed as light.

In addition, West German Patent Publication No. 3336803 has a function to emit light to the ultrasonic probe, and the light emitted from the ultrasonic probe can be observed with an endoscope inserted into another part of the body cavity. Describes that the position of an ultrasonic probe is to be recognized. Each of these two prior examples attempts to know the scanning position of the ultrasonic probe by observing the light passing through the body wall or the affected part.

Furthermore, JP-A-58-133232 discloses that the imaging device and the ultrasonic probe are simultaneously rotated, and the obtained optical image and ultrasonic image are arranged in a relative positional relationship with each other. Describes that an ultrasonic image can be obtained after confirming a diagnosis site with an optical image.

[Problems to be solved by the invention]

However, in the prior example described in Japanese Utility Model Application Laid-Open No. 58-15701, the light from the light emitting element attached near the ultrasonic probe is indirectly viewed through the body wall, so There is a problem that the confirmation of is incorrect.

Further, in the prior art described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 58-133232, since an ultrasonic probe is provided at the tip and an imaging element is provided on the back surface, diagnosis is performed using the ultrasonic probe. However, there is a problem that the affected part cannot be observed at the same time.

Furthermore, as described in JP-B-63-3616, there is a mirror that simultaneously observes an ultrasonic diagnostic site with a reflecting mirror and light synchronized with the rotation of the reflecting mirror. There is a problem that the tip structure is complicated and the diameter of the insertion portion becomes large.

The present invention has been proposed to solve these problems, and it is an object of the present invention to provide an ultrasonic endoscope that can display an accurate tomographic line for ultrasonic diagnosis in an observation visual field during ultrasonic scanning. is there.

[Means and actions for solving the problem]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a visual field observation optical system and an ultrasonic vibrator at the distal end of the insertion section, and an ultrasonic endoscope apparatus capable of performing visual field observation and ultrasonic observation.
The present invention is characterized in that there is provided means for superimposing and displaying a curve, which is an intersection line of the curved surface of the body cavity inner wall and the ultrasonic tomographic plane, on the visual field observation image.

By displaying the ultrasonic tomographic line on the visual field observation image of the eyepiece and the visual field observation image of the visual field display in this way,
The correlation between the ultrasonic observation image and the visual field observation site can be obtained.

〔Example〕

FIG. 1 is an external perspective view of an endoscope according to a first embodiment of the present invention. The endoscope 1 has an eyepiece section 2, an operation section 3, an insertion section 4, a universal cord 5, and a connector 6.
The insertion section 4 includes a flexible section 7, a curved section 8, and a distal end section 9. The insertion section 4 extends inside the insertion section 4 and the operation section 3 and is provided with an image guide, a light guide, a forceps channel, and the like. The operation unit 3 is provided with an angle knob 10 and a forceps insertion port 11. The operation of the angle knob 10 causes the bending portion 8 to bend to change the direction of the distal end portion 9. And forceps are inserted through a forceps channel to collect tissue in a body cavity. The entrance end of the light guide is connected to a light source unit (not shown) via the universal cord 5 and the connector 6, thereby illuminating the inside of the body cavity through the light guide.
The image is observed with the naked eye in the eyepiece unit 2 via an objective lens system, an image guide, and an eyepiece lens system, or projected on a monitor via a television camera.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the present embodiment. The distal end portion 9 is provided with a distal end optical system 12 and an ultrasonic transducer 13. The ultrasonic transducer 13 includes a pulsar circuit 15, a control circuit 16, a receiving circuit 1,
7. It is controlled by the observation device 14 provided with a DSC (digital scan converter) 18.

The ultrasonic transducer 13 is driven by the pulsar circuit 15 and the control circuit 16 to emit ultrasonic waves to the subject, and the reflected echo is detected by the ultrasonic transducer 13. The ultrasonic signal (reflected echo) obtained in this way is received by the receiving circuit 17,
Ultrasonic image display unit such as TV monitor
Displayed at 19 as an ultrasonic tomographic image.

On the other hand, the distance measurement circuit 20 is connected to the reception circuit 17 and is connected so that a signal from the control circuit 16 can be input simultaneously when a signal is sent from the control circuit 16 to the pulser circuit 15. And the distance measurement circuit 20 is a tomographic line creation circuit
A tomographic line signal is sent to the endoscope visual field display unit 22 via 21.

Further, an optical observation image from the tip optical system is displayed on the endoscope visual field display unit 22. A means for measuring the distance between the distal end surface of the insertion section facing the diagnostic site and the surface of the diagnostic site in this way, and a means for displaying an ultrasonic tomographic line on the endoscope visual field display unit 22 based on the measured distance are provided. The correlation is made between the ultrasonic observation image and the visual field observation site.

Next, a method of creating a tomographic line will be described. Since the distance between the distal end optical system 12 and the diagnostic site can be calculated using the reflected echo of the ultrasonic wave, a tomographic line is created based on this. This distance measurement is performed, for example, by simultaneously sending a signal from the control circuit 16 to the pulsar circuit 15 and at the same time
And returns the reflected echo from the subject to the receiving circuit.
It receives at 17 and judges it as the first echo and calculates it.

FIG. 3 is a diagram for explaining the principle of tomographic line creation. As shown in FIG. 3A, the ultrasonic tomographic line of the ultrasonic transducer 13 provided at the distal end portion 9 is displayed as a line A, which extends in a direction orthogonal to the ultrasonic endoscope insertion direction. It is formed. The tip optical system 12 is provided as a so-called side view type, and its viewing angle is 2θ. Ultrasonic transducer 13
Is located closer to the tip than the tip optical system 12, and the center B of the field of view of the tip optical system 12 is separated from the ultrasonic tomographic line A of the ultrasonic transducer 13 by a distance a. The circle shown in the lower part of FIG. 3A indicates the range in which the surface of the subject is observed from the tip optical system 12. The endoscope visual field display section 22 displays a substantially circular observation visual field having a diameter D as shown in FIG. 3B.

The tomographic line A is a distance from the center of the visual field on the subject.
yn is expressed as a focus of a point Xn represented by an angle n formed with the insertion direction.

Here, in an optical system such as an endoscope, generally the fourth
As shown in the figure, when the angle of view is 90 ° or less, the angle of view of the objective lens is 2θ, the focal length is f, and the mask diameter of the image guide is 2θ.
c, assuming that the height of the image on the image guide is b, the following relationship holds: c = f sin θ (1) b = f sin ω (2) Therefore, for the height a of an object at a position separated by the distance h, Therefore, an object in the visual field of the diameter D of the endoscope visual field display 22 is expressed as a focus of X′n (l (yn), n) by the polar coordinate display, Becomes

here It is.

The above is the display of the tomographic line on the endoscope visual field display unit 22 of the ultrasonic endoscope. The display on the eyepiece unit 2 according to the second embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. Parts corresponding to those in the embodiment are denoted by the same reference numerals). In this embodiment, A
As shown in the figure, an adapter 23 for displaying a tomographic line is provided on the eyepiece 2 of the endoscope 1. FIG. B is an enlarged sectional view of the adapter 23. A half mirror 25 is provided above the coupling portion 24 with the eyepiece 2, and a viewing window 26 is provided above the half mirror 25.
The field-of-view observation image from 12 is viewed directly. on the other hand,
A liquid crystal monitor 27 is provided in a direction orthogonal to the direct viewing direction of the viewing window 26, and the tomographic line is reflected by the half mirror 25 via an optical system 28 disposed between the viewing mirror 26 and the viewing window 26. The superimposed display of the image and the tomographic line is observed.

FIG. C is an external view of the observation device 14, the light source unit 29, and the tomographic line device 30 that connect connectors of various codes extending from the endoscope 1.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram of the present embodiment, but only the points different from FIG. 2 will be described. The ultrasonic signal detected by the ultrasonic transducer 13 is received by the receiving circuit 17 via the preamplifier 33. Like that. Observation device 14 has fault line device 30
Are connected, and the tomographic line device 30 has a comparison circuit 31,
A counter 32 and a tomographic line creation circuit 21 are provided. A visual field observation image is sent from the tip optical system 12 to the eyepiece 2, and an adapter 23 is connected to the eyepiece 2. The tomographic line creation circuit 21 is connected to the adapter 23.
The method and principle of creating a tomographic line are the same as in the first embodiment.

In this embodiment, the result of finding the tomographic line is transmitted to the adapter 23 connected to the eyepiece 2 and displayed on the liquid crystal monitor 27 in this embodiment. The image on the liquid crystal monitor 27 is
Passes through the half mirror 25 and is observed from the field window 26 together with the field observation image. In this way, the visual field observation image and the tomographic line can be superimposed and displayed.

Next, the actual observation and diagnosis using an ultrasonic endoscope according to the above principle will be described with reference to FIG. First, the endoscope is inserted into the body cavity, and when it reaches a required location, it is observed with the distal end optical system 12 as shown in FIG. 7 (A).
S is a tumor site occurring in the subject. As shown in FIG. 7 (B), the subject surface portion centering on S appears in the endoscope visual field display section 22.

In this state, an ultrasonic wave is emitted from the ultrasonic transducer 13 to the subject, and the distance h from the surface of the subject is measured using the reflected echo. Then, based on the principle as described above, the ultrasonic tomographic line 1 is superimposed on the visual field image and displayed as shown in FIG. 7 (B). On the other hand, on the ultrasonic image display section 19, the subject portion that deviates from a certain position of S is displayed as an ultrasonic tomographic image as shown in FIG. 7 (C).

Next, the ultrasonic endoscope is operated to ultrasonically scan the ultrasonic tomographic plane of the tumor portion S so that the tumor portion S is located on the ultrasonic tomographic line l. As a result, FIG.
The ultrasonic tomographic image of the tumor site S is displayed on the ultrasonic display unit 19 as shown in FIG. As described above, it is possible to perform ultrasonic scanning while accurately recognizing a part of the subject from which an ultrasonic tomographic image is desired to be obtained. Needless to say, the above is common to the observation in the endoscope visual field display unit 22 and the observation in the eyepiece unit 2.

In the above embodiment, the case where the tomographic plane of the ultrasonic wave is perpendicular to the insertion direction of the endoscope insertion section is shown. However, the present invention is not limited to this. As long as the line is properly displayed, it goes without saying that the present invention can be applied to a case where the tomographic plane is parallel to the insertion direction of the insertion portion. Also, the scanning method using ultrasonic waves is not limited to the radial scanning method, and an electronic sector method, an electronic convex method, or the like can be used.

FIG. 8 shows the principle of tomographic line creation according to the third embodiment of the present invention, and is an explanatory diagram in the case where the ultrasonic tomographic plane is parallel to the insertion direction of the endoscope insertion section. . The tomographic line A is represented as a focus on a point Xn represented by a distance yn with respect to the center of the visual field and an angle n on the subject. Therefore, the object in the visual field of the diameter D of the endoscope visual field display section (FIG. B) is expressed as the focus of Xn (l (yn), n) by the polar coordinate display as in the case of the first embodiment. here It is.

FIG. 9 shows a fourth embodiment of the present invention.
This embodiment is a modification of the second embodiment.
As shown in the figure, a tomographic line display mechanism is built in the eyepiece 2 of the endoscope 1. FIG. B is an enlarged sectional view of the tomographic line display mechanism. The visual field observation image from the tip optical system is guided through the image guide 35, passes through the half mirror 25, is guided by the relay lens 34, and is observed by the eyepiece optical system provided in the eyepiece 2. Has become. On the other hand, a liquid crystal monitor is provided in a direction orthogonal to the observation system for observing the visual field observation image, and a tomographic line is guided to the half mirror 25 via the optical system 28.
The light is reflected in 34 directions, and the superimposed display of the visual field observation image and the tomographic line is observed from the eyepiece optical system.

FIG. 10 is a block diagram of the present embodiment. The configuration is almost the same as that of FIG. 6 which is a block diagram of the second embodiment.
In the present embodiment, a liquid crystal monitor 27 is connected to a tomographic line creation circuit 21 provided in a tomographic line device 30 so as to guide a tomographic line to the eyepiece 2. Other configurations are the same as in the second embodiment.

FIG. 11 shows a fifth embodiment of the present invention.
This embodiment uses an endoscope (FIG. A) to display an ultrasonic image display unit 19.
And an endoscope visual field display section 22 to display a tomographic image and a visual field observation image, respectively (FIG. B). FIG. 12 is a block diagram of the present embodiment. In this embodiment, the visual field observation image obtained by the tip optical system 12 is guided to the endoscope visual field display unit 22 by using a solid-state imaging device such as a CCD without using an image guide. A tomographic line creation circuit 21 provided in the tomographic line device 30
Is connected to the endoscope video image sensor unit 36, performs image processing, and superimposes and displays the image on the endoscope visual field display unit 22.

〔The invention's effect〕

As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to superimpose and display a curve that is the intersection of the curved surface of the body cavity inner wall and the ultrasonic tomographic plane on the visual field observation image. Appropriate visual field observation and ultrasonic observation can be performed while correlating with the above.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an overall perspective view of an ultrasonic endoscope showing a first embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a block diagram thereof, and FIGS. FIGS. 5A, 5B, and 5C are an overall view, a partial cross-sectional view, and a view near an endoscope visual field display section of an endoscope according to a second embodiment of the present invention. 7 (A) to 7 (E) are diagrams showing the state of specimen observation and diagnosis, and FIG. 8 is a diagram for explaining the principle of ultrasonic tomographic line creation according to the third embodiment of the present invention. 9A and 9B are an overall view and a partial cross-sectional view of an endoscope according to a fourth embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 10 is a block diagram thereof, and FIGS. FIG. 12 is an overall view of an endoscope according to a fifth embodiment, an overall view near each display device, and FIG. 12 is a block diagram thereof. 12… tip optical system, 13… ultrasonic transducer 19… ultrasonic image display unit, 20… distance measurement circuit 21… tomographic line creation circuit 22… endoscope visual field display unit

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. An ultrasonic endoscope apparatus comprising a visual field observation optical system and an ultrasonic vibrator provided at a distal end of an insertion portion to perform visual field observation and ultrasonic observation, wherein a curved surface of a body cavity inner wall is formed on a visual field observation image. An ultrasonic endoscope apparatus, comprising means for superimposing and displaying a curve which is an intersection line between the ultrasonic endoscope and the ultrasonic tomographic plane.