JPH0277242A - Ultrasonic probe - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To improve a response and simultaneously, to project a satisfactory image on a monitor by efficiently transmitting a piston movement force at hand through a driving force transmitting medium liquid in a catheter to an ultrasonic vibrator at a tip. CONSTITUTION:When a piston 19 is pressed in, a thrust pressure is given to an oil 12 in an end hard part 23 and in a catheter 3, and the oil 12 in a tip hard part 22 transmits the thrust pressure to a cylinder 13. On the other hand, when the pressure of the piston 19 is released, the cylinder 13 is pressed at a hand side by the restoring force of a spring 9, and a tip driving part 1 is retreated. At a scanning position detecting part 4, by pressing in the piston 19 and rotating a gear 16 in interlocking with a gear 15, an encoder 18 is rotated through a drive transmitting part 17. By transmitting the position detecting signal of the encoder 18 through a signal line 20 to an external part, the position of the piston 19 is detected. The position of the piston 19 is coincided to the position of an ultrasonic vibrator 2 provided to the tip driving part 1.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to an ultrasonic probe called a so-called miniature probe used when observing a narrow site such as the inner wall of a blood vessel.

[Conventional technology]

An ultrasonic probe with a small diameter called a miniature probe is one in which an ultrasonic transducer 37 is provided at the tip of a catheter 36, as shown in FIG.

In the case of ultrasonic scanning, for example, the blood vessel 38
By inserting an ultrasound probe into the catheter and moving the rear end in the direction of insertion of the ultrasound probe, the ultrasound transducer 37 provided at the tip of the catheter is moved in the aforementioned direction.

Further, as shown in FIG. 9, an ultrasonic transducer 39 is provided inside the catheter 38, and two channels 40° 41 are formed to send air into the catheter 38.
Some devices perform ultrasonic scanning by moving an ultrasonic transducer in the ultrasonic probe insertion direction via a piston or the like by feeding air from an air pump.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

However, when scanning by moving the ultrasonic transducer in the insertion direction, the conventional ultrasonic probe as shown in FIG.
Since the catheter extends through a flexible path such as a blood vessel, even if the drive unit at the rear end of the catheter moves the amount of scanning by one minute, the moving force will be absorbed by the blood vessel etc. before it is transmitted to the tip of the catheter. However, there were problems in that the scanning amount of the tip of the catheter decreased to l' and the response was poor.

Furthermore, as shown in Fig. 9, even if the response is improved when an ultrasonic transducer is moved and scanned inside the catheter using pneumatic pressure, multiple reflections of ultrasonic waves occur between the ultrasonic transducer and the catheter wall. If air enters between the ultrasound transducer and the catheter during scanning, or if air leaks from inside the catheter to the outside and air bubbles adhere to the outer wall of the catheter, total reflection of the ultrasound due to the air occurs and the monitor There was a problem that a good image could not be projected on the screen.

Furthermore, the catheter and the ultrasonic transducer must be brought into close contact with each other, which causes the problem that frictional vibrations between the catheter and the ultrasonic transducer appear as noise in the image during driving.

The present invention has been proposed to solve the above problems, and aims to improve response and monitor good images when generating a driving force in the operation section at the rear end of the catheter and causing the ultrasonic transducer at the tip to follow. The purpose of this invention is to provide an ultrasonic probe that can be projected onto

(Means and Effects for Solving the Problems) In order to achieve the above objects, the present invention provides an ultrasonic transducer in which an ultrasonic transducer is provided at the tip of a flexible catheter, and an operating section for moving the ultrasonic transducer is provided at the other end of the catheter. In the sonic probe, the ultrasonic transducer is provided so as to be movable forward and backward in the insertion direction of the ultrasonic probe from the tip of the catheter, and the moving operation section is provided so as to be able to detect the amount of movement,
The inside of the catheter between the ultrasonic transducer and the moving operating section is filled with a driving force transmission medium liquid for the moving operating section.

Thereby, the piston motion force at hand can be efficiently transmitted to the ultrasonic transducer at the tip via the driving force transmission medium liquid in the catheter.

〔Example〕

FIG. 1 is an overall view showing a first embodiment of the present invention. A distal end drive unit 1 provided with an ultrasonic transducer 2 is provided at the distal end of the catheter 3 so as to be movable in the insertion direction via a cylinder shaft 5. At the rear of the tip drive unit 1, a catheter 3 extends to the proximal side, and on the proximal side there are a piston 19 that transmits the Heaviston motion force of the tip drive unit 1, and a scanning position detection unit that detects the scanning position of the ultrasonic transducer 2. 4 is provided, and this scanning position detection section 4
A cord 6 is provided with a connector 7 at the tip through which various signal lines are passed.

FIG. 2 is a sectional view showing the internal configuration. Tip drive part 1
A cylinder shaft 5 is connected to the rear part of the cylinder 13.
The front end driving portion l is configured to move by the back and forth movement of the tip. A catheter 3 made of Teflon or the like and having a rigid distal end portion 22 and a rigid rear end portion 23 at both ends extends through a cylinder shaft 5 behind the distal end drive portion 1 . The tip rigid portion 22 and the end of the catheter 3 are tightened with a thread 24 and an adhesive 25, and the rear end rigid portion 23 and the other end of the catheter 3 are similarly tightened with a thread 26 and an adhesive 27. be.

An O-ring 8 is provided inside the rigid tip portion 22 so as to be in contact with the outer periphery of the cylinder shaft 5 inserted therein, and an O-ring 1 is provided on the outer periphery of the cylinder 13 so as to be in contact with the inner wall of the rigid tip portion 22.
0 to maintain watertightness. Further, a spring 9 is provided on the outer periphery of the cylinder shaft 5 within the rigid tip portion 22 to smooth the back and forth movement of the tip drive portion 1. A signal line 11 connected to the ultrasonic transducer 2 passes through the cylinder shaft 5 and the cylinder 13, passes through the side wall of the catheter 3, and is guided into the cord 6 on the proximal side.

A cylinder 21 that is a constituent part of the piston 19 and a gear 15 continuous with the cylinder 21 are inserted into the rear end rigid portion 23 . An O-ring 14 is provided on the outer periphery of the cylinder 21 so as to be in contact with the inner wall of the rear end rigid portion to maintain watertightness. A scanning position detection section 4 is provided at the proximal end of the rear end rigid section 23, and a gear 1 that meshes with the gear 15 of the piston 19 is provided.
6 is connected to an encoder 18 via a drive transmission section 17. A signal line 20 from encoder 18 is led to code 6.

The inside of the catheter 3 is filled with oil 12 which is subjected to a pressing force by a cylinder 13 in a rigid distal end portion 22 and a cylinder 21 in a rigid rear end portion 23 .

With this configuration, when the piston 19 is pushed in, a pressing force is applied to the oil 12 in the rear end rigid part 23 and the catheter 3, and the oil 12 in the distal rigid part 22 is pushed into the cylinder 1.
Since the pressing force is transmitted to 3, the tip driving portion 1 is moved forward against the force of the spring 9.

On the other hand, when the pressure of the piston 19 is released, the restoring force of the spring 9 allows the cylinder 13 to be pushed toward the proximal side and the tip driving portion 1 to be moved backward. In this way, the distal end drive section 1 becomes movable back and forth in the insertion direction.

In the scanning position detection section 4, the gear 16 rotates in conjunction with the gear 15 by pushing the piston 19, thereby rotating the encoder 18 via the drive transmission section 17.

The position of the piston 19 is detected by transmitting the position detection signal of the encoder 18 to the outside via the signal line 20. Since the position of the piston 19 corresponds to the position of the ultrasonic transducer 2 provided in the tip drive section l, it is possible to drive the ultrasonic transducer 2 while checking its position to obtain an ultrasonic tomographic image.

In this embodiment, the piston 19 and the oil 12 which is the driving force transmission medium liquid make it possible to adjust the amount of movement while reliably transmitting the response of the piston 19 to the tip driving section l.

FIG. 3 shows a second embodiment of the invention. 1st
The same reference numerals are given to parts corresponding to those in the embodiment. In this embodiment, unlike the first embodiment, a magnetic pole part 28 is provided at the end of the cylinder 13 which moves back and forth within the rigid tip part 22 and comes into contact with the driving force transmission medium liquid, and the corresponding rigid part 23 of the rear end moves back and forth. A magnetic pole portion 29 is also provided at the end of the cylinder 21. Needless to say, the magnetic fluid 30 is used as the driving force transmission medium liquid.

In this embodiment, the tip drive section is moved while generating attractive force and repulsive force between the magnetic pole parts 28 and 29 and the magnetic fluid 30, so even if a pressing force is applied to the magnetic fluid 30, the magnetic fluid 30 does not flow outside. There is little leakage and the response of the piston can be reliably transmitted to the tip drive section.

FIG. 4 shows a third embodiment of the present invention, in which the driving force transmission medium liquid is simply oil in the first embodiment, but is specifically limited to castor oil 31. By doing so, the response to the driving force of the piston is improved, and even if the castor oil 31 leaks to the outside as shown in the figure, not only is there no harm, but an ultrasonic emulsion effect is produced.

In other words, when an ultrasonic transducer is driven to obtain an ultrasonic echo, it is similar to spraying castor oil 31 on the observed tissue within the body cavity, and the observed tissue becomes more likely to react to the ultrasonic waves.

5 and 6 show a fourth embodiment of the present invention, in which a protrusion 32 is formed on the inner wall of the rigid tip portion 22, and a guide groove 33 is formed on the cylinder body 13a for engagement.
When moving the cylinder 13 forward, the tip drive section 1 is caused to perform a spiral rotational motion. FIG. 6 shows the state of movement.

With this configuration, the ultrasonic probe can be smoothly inserted into the stenosed area.

FIG. 7 shows a fifth embodiment of the present invention, which is another embodiment of the scanning position detection section. A black and white striped position detection mark 34 is formed on the cylinder 21, and a photoreflector 35 is provided so that the movement of this mark 34 can be read. With this configuration, the amount of movement of the piston 19 can be detected by counting the main line of the mark 34.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As described above, according to the present invention, the driving force from the hand operation section can be transmitted to the driving section at the tip with good response.

Moreover, since there is no obstacle in the direction of the ultrasonic wave emitted from the ultrasonic transducer, and there is nothing that causes friction during the operation of the ultrasonic transducer, a good ultrasonic image can be displayed on the monitor.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a first embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a sectional view thereof. FIG. 3 is a partial sectional view showing a second embodiment of the invention, FIG. 4 is a partial sectional view showing a third embodiment of the invention, and FIG. 5 is a fourth embodiment of the invention. 6 is an explanatory view of the same operation. FIG. 7 is a partial sectional view showing the fifth embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 8 is a usage state diagram showing the conventional example. Figure 9 is a partial sectional view showing another conventional example.
Tip drive unit 2... Ultrasonic transducer 3... Catheter 4... Scanning position detection unit 5... Cylinder shaft 12... Oil 13... Cylinder 19...
・Piston 21... Cylinder 22... Tip rigid part 23... Rear end rigid part Patent applicant: Olympus Optical Industry Co., Ltd. Representative Patent Attorney: Hidetoshi Sugimura Akira, Patent Attorney: Kosaku Sugimura 6゜Figure 1 Figure 3 Figure 4 Figure 5 Figure 6 Figure 7 Figure 8 Figure 9

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. In an ultrasonic probe in which an ultrasonic transducer is provided at the tip of a flexible catheter and a moving operation section for the ultrasonic transducer is provided at the other end of the catheter, the ultrasonic transducer is moved from the tip of the catheter. The ultrasound probe is provided so as to be movable back and forth in the forward direction of insertion, and the moving operating section is provided to be able to detect the amount of movement, and a driving force transmission medium liquid for the moving operating section is disposed inside the catheter between the ultrasound transducer and the moving operating section. An ultrasonic probe characterized by being filled with.