JPH02107239A - Puncture needle type ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To perform the ultrasonic diagnosis of tissue to be examined with high resolving power of a microscopic level by providing a probe projected and inserted in the tissue to be examined and rotatable around the needle axis thereof and transmitting ultra-high frequency wave to the leading end part of said probe. CONSTITUTION:An ultrasonic oscillation part 14 is provided to the leading end part of a probe 12 and the front shape thereof is constituted of an arbitrary shape such as a circuit or square shape. A receiving circuit 24 is connected to an ultrasonic vibrator 16 and receives the reflected wave received by the ultrasonic vibrator 16 to perform amplification and A/D conversion. At first, a trocar 10 is punctured in the tissue to be examined of an examinee and ultrasonic beam of high frequency capable of obtaining high resolving power of a microscopic level is transmitted to the tissue to be examined from the ultrasonic oscillation part 14. By this method, since the transmitting depth in the tissue is about 0.2-0.5mm but resolving power is high, an image can be displayed up to an erythrocyte level of about 10mum.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Industrial Application Field] The present invention relates to an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus, and more particularly to a puncture needle type ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus that performs image display diagnosis of directly adjacent tissue within a test tissue of a subject.

[Prior Art] Conventionally, ultrasonic diagnostic devices emit an ultrasonic beam from the body surface of the subject into the subject's body, and receive reflected waves reflected within the body to obtain information within the subject's body. Common. In addition, in order to perform ultrasound diagnosis from a position closer to the tissue to be examined, a probe equipped with an ultrasound transducer is inserted into the body cavity to transmit and receive ultrasound beams from inside the body to perform ultrasound diagnosis. Internally inserted ultrasound diagnostic devices are also known.

Such an intra-body cavity insertion type ultrasound diagnostic apparatus performs diagnosis by inserting an ultrasound probe into the rectum, for example, for prostate diagnosis. Then, from the probe of such a diagnostic device, 3 to 1
A 0 MHz ultrasound beam is used.

On the other hand, conventional ultrasound technology related to puncture needles used for deep treatment and diagnosis of a subject is for accurately inserting the puncture needle toward the target tissue, and is used on the surface of the body, for example. A device is known that performs safe and reliable puncture using a probe that has a puncture hole in the center of the probe that allows the puncture needle to pass through.
Publication No. 9).

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] According to the probe inserted into the body cavity, ultrasonic diagnosis can be performed from inside the subject. However, since ultrasound diagnosis is not performed by directly puncturing the tissue to be examined,
When transmitting an ultrasonic beam, it was necessary to use a frequency that would reach a predetermined depth. In other words, it is necessary to set the frequency of the ultrasound beam so that the ultrasound beam can reach the tissue suspected of having a lesion from the probe inserted into the body cavity. is used. When using an ultrasonic beam with such a relatively low frequency, it is possible to ensure a penetration depth of the ultrasonic beam of about 15 cm to 3 ca+, but there is a problem in that high resolution cannot be obtained.

That is, in order to obtain high resolution, for example, in order to be able to diagnose the level of red blood cells, a resolution that allows discrimination of about 10 microns is required, and the frequency needs to be about 400 to 500 MHz. However, when using such a high frequency ultrasound beam, the penetration depth is 0. 2~O15
■It is impossible to diagnose tissue that is far from the body cavity into which the probe was inserted. Therefore, in the case of a probe that can be inserted into a body cavity, an ultrasound beam with a relatively low frequency is used to ensure a certain level of penetration depth.
It has not been possible to perform fine tissue image diagnosis using microscopic-level high resolution.

In addition, conventional puncture needles do not perform ultrasound image diagnosis by emitting ultrasound beams directly from the puncture needle punctured into the tissue to be examined, but instead use an ultrasound probe for puncturing the inside of the patient from the body surface. The patient makes a diagnosis, visually confirms the point to be punctured with the puncture needle, and performs the puncturing operation. Therefore, there is a problem in that the frequency of the ultrasonic beam cannot be increased in order to increase the resolution to the microscopic level, similar to an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus using a probe inserted into a body cavity.

Purpose of the Invention The present invention was made to solve the above-mentioned problems, and its purpose is to directly insert an ultrasonic oscillator into the tissue to be examined to perform ultrasonic diagnosis of the tissue to be examined at a microscopic level. An object of the present invention is to provide a puncture needle type ultrasonic diagnostic device that can perform diagnosis using resolution.

[Means for Solving the Problems] In order to achieve the above object, a puncture needle type ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to the present invention includes a hollow trocar that is punctured into the tissue to be examined, and a mantle that is inserted into the trocar. A probe needle whose tip is inserted into the tissue to be examined protruding from the tip opening of the needle and is rotatable around the needle axis; an ultrasonic transducer that transmits ultrahigh-frequency sound waves capable of obtaining microscopic-level resolution to tissue and receives the reflected waves; a position detection means that detects the vertical movement distance or rotation angle of the probe; a transmitting circuit for transmitting the ultrahigh frequency sound wave from the sonic transducer; a receiving circuit for receiving reflected waves received by the ultrasonic transducer; and an output signal from the receiving circuit and a probe from the position detector. an image display means for displaying a microscopically enlarged image of the test tissue based on the vertical distance signal or rotation angle signal of the needle;
It is characterized in that an image is displayed while moving the probe up and down or rotating it.

[Operation] According to the above configuration, the probe needle, which has one ultrasonic transducer at the tip that transmits and receives ultrahigh-frequency sound waves, is inserted into the tissue to be examined through the opening at the tip of the hollow trocar. The probe is inserted protrusively into the tissue, and an ultrasonic beam can be transmitted from the ultrasonic transducer at the tip of the probe to the tissue to be examined near the outer periphery of the probe.

Here, the ultrasound beam can be transmitted directly to the tissue to be examined that is in contact with the outer periphery of the probe needle, and in order to perform ultrasound diagnosis of this tissue, the penetration depth of the ultrasound beam must be An extremely small one is sufficient. Therefore, it is not necessary to ensure a large penetration depth of the ultrasonic beam, so it is possible to increase the frequency of the ultrasonic beam in order to obtain a high-resolution image on a microscopic level.

In addition, since the probe needle is attached to the trocar so that it can move up and down or rotate around the needle axis, the probe needle can be moved up and down or rotated within the tissue to be examined while transmitting and receiving ultrasound beams. As a result, it is possible to obtain an image of the outer periphery of the position where the ultrasonic transducer of the probe needle is provided, that is, a cross-sectional image at a predetermined depth corresponding to an arbitrary movement distance or rotation angle.

In this way, the ultrasonic beam's microscopic resolution provides fine tissue image information, and by displaying an enlarged image based on this, more accurate tissue diagnosis of lesions can be made. be able to.

[Embodiments] Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described based on the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows a partial perspective view of the distal end of the trocar and probe needle, which are the characteristic components of the present invention.
It has a hollow structure, and the tip is tapered to an acute angle to make it easier to puncture the subject. The probe needle 12 is inserted into the inside of the trocar 10, and the probe needle 12 is configured so that its tip portion protrudes from its tip opening 10a.

An ultrasonic oscillator 14 is provided at the tip of the probe 12 . The front shape of the oscillating section 14 can be configured in any desired shape, such as a circular shape as shown in FIGS. 1(A) and 1(B), or a rectangular shape as shown in FIG. 1(C).

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a cross section of the ultrasonic oscillating portion 14 of the probe needle 12, which has a solid structure in this embodiment, but may also have a hollow structure.

The ultrasonic oscillator 14 is attached to the peripheral wall of the probe needle 12 so as to transmit an ultrasonic beam outward. A surface coating material 18 is provided on the surface side of the probe needle 12 with the ultrasonic transducer 16 in between, and a damper material 20 is provided on the inner surface side of the ultrasonic transducer 16. Here, the surface coating material 18 also functions as an acoustic lens to focus the ultrasonic beam, and the damper material 20 acts as an acoustic absorption attenuator for the ultrasonic waves emitted from the ultrasonic transducer 16 to the back surface. It functions to prevent it from being displayed on the given image.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the main components of the puncture needle type ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to the present invention. A circuit 22 is connected to the ultrasonic transducer 16, and outputs a signal for transmitting an ultrahigh-frequency sound wave with a high frequency capable of obtaining microscopic-level resolution from the ultrasonic transducer 16.

Further, a receiving circuit 24 is connected to the ultrasonic transducer 16, and the receiving circuit 24 receives the reflected wave received by the ultrasonic transducer 16, and performs amplification, A/D conversion, and the like. The output signal from this receiving circuit 24 is sent to an image processing circuit 26, and the image processing circuit 26 performs signal processing for displaying an ultrasound diagnostic image on the CRT 2B. Further, a position detector 30 is provided for detecting the moving distance or rotation angle of the probe needle 12 provided with the ultrasonic transducer 16, and the moving distance or rotation angle signal from this position detector 30 is also provided. It is supplied to the image processing circuit 26. The image processing circuit 26 is
Based on the signal from the receiving circuit 24, an image of a predetermined area corresponding to the movement distance or rotation angle signal is displayed on the CRT 2g.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be explained.

First, the trocar 10 is punctured into the tissue to be examined of the subject. At this time, the probe needle 12 is kept in a state in which it does not protrude from the tip opening 10a of the trocar 10.

That is, the trocar 10 is inserted into the tissue to be examined in the state shown in FIG. Then, the probe needle 2 is lowered in the tissue to be examined, and the tip protrudes from the tip opening 10a of the trocar 10,
The ultrasonic transducer 4 is inserted into the tissue to be examined.

Then, the ultrasonic oscillator 14 transmits a high-frequency ultrasonic beam capable of obtaining microscopic-level high resolution, for example, an ultrasonic beam with a frequency of about 400 to 500 MH2, toward the tissue to be examined.

At this time, in order to obtain an image of a predetermined area around the probe needle 12, the probe needle 12 is manually or mechanically moved up and down or rotated around the needle axis within the puncture needle 10. This movement distance or rotation angle is detected by the position detector 30 and sent to the image processing circuit 26. Above 400~500MH
According to the ultrasonic beam of the frequency z, the penetration depth into the tissue is about 0.2 to 0.5+++ m, but the resolution is high, so it is possible to display images down to the level of red blood cells of about 10 microns.

The transmitted high frequency ultrasonic beam is transmitted to the ultrasonic transducer 1
The received signal is received at 6, passes through a receiving circuit 24 and an image processing circuit 26, and is displayed as an image on a CRT 28. This image display is
Any area can be set by linear scanning by vertical movement of the probe 12 or radial scanning by rotation, but the vertical movement speed or rotation speed can also be set arbitrarily, and high resolution can be achieved by scanning at low speed. It is also possible to obtain For example, when displaying an image by rotating the probe 12 by 360 degrees, if the penetration depth of the ultrasonic beam is approximately 0.51, then a tissue of 0.5 ma + width in the depth direction around the probe 12 will be formed. A cross-sectional image of the part can be displayed. Although the width is as narrow as 0.5 mm, it is possible to directly display a cross-sectional image of the examined tissue with high resolution (discrimination of about 10 μm is possible). It is possible to more accurately determine whether the

[Effects of the Invention] As explained above, according to the puncture needle type ultrasonic diagnostic device according to the present invention, since the ultrasonic oscillating part can be directly inserted into the tissue to be examined using the probe needle, large ultrasonic waves can be generated. There is no need to ensure a beam penetration depth, and ultrasonic image diagnosis becomes possible using high-frequency ultrahigh-frequency sound waves that have a small penetration depth but can provide microscopic-level resolution. As a result, ultrasonic image diagnosis can be performed by obtaining minute image information of the tissue to be examined. Therefore, the reliability of diagnosis of lesions, etc. of the tissue to be examined is further improved.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Figures 1 (A) to (C) are perspective views of the tips of the puncture needle and probe needle of the example, Figure 2 is a cross-sectional view of the tip of the probe needle, and Figure 3 is the main part of the example. FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing the configuration and a perspective view showing the puncture needle when puncturing the tissue to be examined. 10 ... Trouser 12 ... Probe needle 14 ... Ultrasonic oscillator 16 ... Ultrasonic vibrator 18 ... Surface coating material 20 ... Damper material 22 ... Transmission circuit 24 ... Receiving circuit 26 ... Image processing circuit ... CRT 30 ... Position detector.

Claims (1)

[Claims] (1) A hollow trocar that is punctured into the test tissue, and a probe that is inserted into the trocar and whose tip protrudes into the test tissue from the opening at the tip of the trocar and is rotatable around the needle axis. A needle, and an ultrasonic wave that is provided at the tip of the probe and transmits ultra-high frequency sound waves capable of obtaining microscopic level resolution to the tissue to be examined near the outer periphery of the probe and receives the reflected waves. a transducer; a position detection means for detecting the vertical movement distance or rotation angle of the probe; a transmitting circuit for transmitting the ultrahigh frequency sound wave from the ultrasonic transducer; a receiving circuit that receives reflected waves; and a microscope-level enlarged image display of the test tissue based on the output signal from the receiving circuit and the vertical distance signal or rotation angle signal of the probe from the position detector. A puncture needle type ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus, comprising: an image display means for displaying an image while moving the probe needle up and down or rotating the probe needle.