JPH02142548A - Ultrasonic probe - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To bring an end chip into contact with a target part easily and obtain a clear ultrasonic image necessary for ultrasonic diagnosis by providing such a coustitution as being capable of curving a necessary part of a sheath part near the end chip easily. CONSTITUTION:To conduct an ultrasonic diagnosis, an ultrasonic probe 12 is inserted into a body cavity together with the inserting part 4 of an endoscope 1 and protruded from the channel port 9a of an end hard part 9 to situate an ultrasonic oscillator face 15a forming a part of the end chip 13 in contact with a target part. When the target part is situated in the direction crossing to the inserting direction of the ultrasonic probe 12, the end chip 13 is turned to make the ultrasonic oscillator face 15a into contact with the target part. As the end chip 13 is fixed by pushing the ultrasonic probe in such a manner that the needle part 17 of the end chip 13 sticks into a living body A, the force of pushing the ultrasonic probe acts on the sheath part 14, and the stress is collected in a crude winding coil part 18 having the highest flexibility. The ultrasonic oscillator face 15a is curved in the crude winding coil part 18 according to the angle of the living body, and it can contact with the target part.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to an ultrasonic probe used in an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus for obtaining information inside a body cavity.

[Conventional technology]

There is a small-diameter ultrasonic probe called a so-called miniature probe. This is a device that is inserted into a body cavity using a treatment tool insertion hole (forceps channel) of an endoscope to perform diagnosis. Insertion is performed while observing with an endoscope observation system, and has a distal tip with an ultrasonic transducer at the distal end and a flexible sheath section connected to the distal tip. A signal cable for transmitting and receiving signals related to the ultrasonic transducer is installed inside the sheath portion.

The ultrasonic probe described above is operated remotely using the endoscope operation unit near the operator's hand to curve the tip of the ultrasonic probe, bring the ultrasonic probe into close contact with the target area of the subject, and transmit the ultrasonic transducer. It is excited to emit an ultrasonic beam, and its reflected waves are received to obtain information about the subject.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

However, when the target region of the subject is located in a direction perpendicular to the insertion direction of the ultrasound probe, there is a problem in that it is difficult to bring the ultrasound probe into contact with the target region. Furthermore, the mechanism for bending the tip of the ultrasonic probe to bring it into contact is complicated, which increases costs.

For example, as described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 57-57537, a coil spring is built into the curved portion, and when an external force is applied from the side, the coil spring is elastically curved together with the outer node ring, and the external force acts on the coil spring. It has been proposed to elastically return to a straight shape in a free state where the blade does not move.

However, in the conventional example described above, although the probe on the tip side of the curved portion is curved simply by pressing it against the body wall, depending on the condition of the body wall, the tip component may slide and the pressing force may not work effectively. . Furthermore, since the structure is not designed to allow for a limited bending of only the required portions of the curved portion, there is a problem in that the desired bending cannot be achieved.

The present invention is proposed to solve the above-mentioned problems.
The object of the present invention is to provide an ultrasonic probe that has a simple configuration and can obtain a clear ultrasonic image by bringing the ultrasonic probe section of the tip into contact with a target region of a subject.

[Means and effects for solving the problems] In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides an ultrasonic probe that is used by being inserted into a required channel of an endoscope. A means for fixing to the subject is formed on the distal end surface of the distal tip, and a flexible sheath part continuous to the distal tip is made such that required parts near the distal tip are more flexible than other parts. The ultrasonic transducer is formed to be high, and the distal tip is bent by the pressing force from the axial direction of the ultrasonic probe, so that the contact surface of the ultrasonic transducer can come into contact with the target region of the subject.

By forming a portion that can be easily bent at the rear of the tip in this way, the tip of the ultrasonic probe can be easily pressed against the subject.

〔Example〕

FIG. 1 is an external perspective view of an example of an endoscope in which the present invention can be implemented. The endoscope 1 includes an eyepiece section 2, an operation section 3, an insertion section 4,
It has a universal cord 5 and a connector 6. The insertion section 4 consists of a flexible section 7, a curved section 8, and a rigid tip section 9, and extends inside the insertion section 4 and the operating section 3, and is provided with an image guide, a light guide, a forceps channel, and the like. Further, the operating section 3 is provided with an angle knob 10 and a forceps insertion port 11, and by operating the angle knob 10, the curved portion 8 is bent to change the direction of the rigid tip portion 9. Forceps are inserted through the forceps channel from 11 to collect tissue within the body cavity. When using the ultrasonic probe of the present invention,
Insert this forceps channel. The incident end of the light guide is connected to a light source unit (not shown) via a universal cord 5 and a connector 6, which illuminates the inside of the body cavity via the light guide and transmits the image to the objective lens system.
It is designed to be observed with the naked eye at the eyepiece section 2 via an image guide and an eyepiece system, or to be displayed on a monitor via a television camera.

FIG. 2 is an enlarged sectional view of the tip of the ultrasound probe 12. The ultrasonic probe 12 has a distal tip 13 and a flexible sheath 814 connected thereto.

The distal tip 13 is made of a hard material, and is provided with an array 15 in which a plurality of ultrasonic transducers 14 are lined up, and a signal is sent via a signal cable 16 connected to each ultrasonic transducer 15b. An ultrasonic beam is emitted from an ultrasonic transducer, and the reflected wave is received by the same ultrasonic transducer. Next, do the same thing for the second ultrasonic transducer,
Electronic linear scanning is performed by repeating these operations one after another to perform the first parallel scanning. It goes without saying that only one ultrasonic transducer may be provided and driven.

The distal end surface of the distal tip 13 forms a needle-like portion 17 that can be fixed to a living body within a body cavity, as shown in FIGS. 2 and 3. This needle-shaped portion 17 is designed to have the smallest puncture shape so as not to cause more damage to the living body than necessary.

The distal tip side of the sheath portion 14 that is continuous with the distal tip 13 is not formed to be flexible like a -.

In other words, the outer periphery of the sheath portion 14 is formed by winding a coil in order to provide flexibility, but the number of turns is smaller in a portion extending over a required range continuous to the rear end of the distal tip 13 than in other portions. In FIG. 2, 18 is a coarsely wound coil section with a small number of turns, and 19 is a closely wound coil section with a large number of turns.

A signal cable 16 held by a flexible tube 20 is provided inside the sheath portion 14 formed in this manner.

To perform ultrasound diagnosis using the ultrasound probe 12 of this embodiment,
The endoscope 1 is inserted into the body cavity together with the insertion section 4, and the endoscope 1 is made to protrude from the channel opening 9a of the rigid tip B9. While visually observing the living body imaged on the objective lens 21 of the observation system through the eyepiece 2, the ultrasonic transducer surface 15a of the array 15, which is a part of the distal tip 13, is brought into contact with the target region. in this case,
If the target region is located substantially parallel to the insertion direction of the ultrasound probe 12, it is easy to bring the ultrasound transducer surface 15a into a contact position while keeping it straight.

On the other hand, if the target region is located in a direction perpendicular to the insertion direction of the ultrasound probe 12, the direction of the distal tip 13 must be changed so that the ultrasound transducer surface 15a comes into contact with the target region. In this case, in this embodiment, when the ultrasonic probe is pressed so that the needle-like part 17 of the distal tip 13 pierces the living body A, as shown in FIG. The pressing force acts on the sheath portion 14, and stress concentrates on the coarsely wound coil portion 18, which has the greatest flexibility. As shown in the figure, the coarsely wound coil portion 18 curves according to the angle of the living body A, so that the ultrasonic transducer surface 15a can come into contact with the target region.

In this state, the operation unit 3 is operated to emit an ultrasound beam from the array 15 to perform ultrasound scanning, but in order to move the ultrasound probe 12 to another target area, the pressing force must be released and the operator must If you pull it out toward your hand, the curved part will elastically return to its straight shape and the tip 13 will be straightened.
The needle-like part 17 is extracted from the living body.

In this way, the ultrasonic transducer surface 15a can be brought into contact with the target region by the simple operation of pressing the ultrasonic probe against the living body A, thereby eliminating the need for the conventional complicated bending operation and the complicated configuration therefor.

The signal cable 16, which is connected to the ultrasonic transducer 15b and extends through the ultrasonic probe 12 and through the universal cord to the connector, normally has a length of about 3 to 4 m, but the diameter of the ultrasonic probe 12 is In order to make it thinner, the diameter of the signal cable 16 must also be made thinner. Although this is necessary to reduce patient pain, this increases capacitance and conductive resistance, resulting in poor S/N ratio and deterioration of ultrasound images. Therefore, it is desired to reduce the diameter of the insertion portion of the ultrasound probe 12 without degrading the image quality.

Therefore, in this embodiment, the signal cable 16 passes through the operation section 3 and extends to the connector 6, but it is connected via a relay board (not shown) provided in the circuit section inside the operation section 3. The diameter of the signal cable 16 is made different between the ultrasonic probe 12 side and the connector 6 side. In other words, the length of the signal cable from the array 15 in the tip chip 13 to the board in the circuit section is about 1 to 1.5 m, but it is AWG 3.
The length of the signal cable from the board to the connector 6 is about 3 m, and a cable of about 8W632 to 36 is used. By doing this, the capacitance of a small diameter signal cable is about 90 to 110 pF, but the capacitance of a large diameter signal cable can be reduced to 70 pF or less, so the total capacitance of the entire length is As a result, the S/N ratio is improved, and image quality deterioration can be suppressed as much as possible.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As described above, according to the present invention, by configuring the sheath portion in the vicinity of the distal tip to be easily bendable, a slight push can easily cause the distal tip to be applied according to the angle of the target area. can be brought into contact with This makes it possible to obtain clear ultrasound images necessary for ultrasound diagnosis. Furthermore, there is no need for a complicated configuration for bending operation as in the conventional art.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an endoscope apparatus using an ultrasound probe of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view showing a main part of an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 3 is a front view of the same. FIG. 4 is a sectional view showing the state of use. 9...Tip rigid part 19a...Channel 1
3... Tip tip 14... Sheath part 15.
...Array 15b...Ultrasonic transducer 17
...Acicular portion 18...Roughly wound coil portion 19
... Closely wound coil part 20 ... Tube patent applicant Olympus Optical Industry Co., Ltd.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. In an ultrasonic probe that is used by being inserted into a required channel of an endoscope, an ultrasonic transducer is attached to the distal end surface of a distal tip provided with a contact surface to the subject. A flexible sheath part continuous to the tip is formed so that a required part near the tip has a higher degree of flexibility than other parts. 1. An ultrasonic probe characterized in that a distal tip is bent by a pressing force from an ultrasonic transducer so that a contact surface of an ultrasonic transducer can come into contact with a target region of a subject.