JPH05103782A - Ultrasonic probe - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To make wires constituting a rotary drive spring signal wires and conduct the rotation scanning of an ultrasonic vibrator by moving a guide wire and a catheter independently through the constitution of the guide wire passing the inside of the catheter. CONSTITUTION:A bearing 3 is inserted into the tip of a catheter 2 that has a hollow structure, and fixed, and a sleeve 4 is inserted into the inside of the bearing 3, and a vibrator holder 5 is inserted from the opposite side, and fixation is made so that rotation movement may freely be carried out against the inner surface of the bearing 3. And, an ultrasonic vibrator 1 is driven in rotation radially at the catheter 2 by means of a very simple constitution and a small number of parts. In addition, a guide wire 7 can be moved independently of the catheter 2 by passing the wire 7 through a rotary drive spring 6 and the vibrator holder 5 inside and passing it to the front of the catheter 2. A probe can be made without providing signal wires anew in the catheter 2 by selecting one out of the wires constituting each layer at the two layers of the rotary drive spring 6 to make a signal wire.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention transmits and receives an ultrasonic signal in a subject while changing the ultrasonic wave transmitting direction to a mechanical type.
The present invention relates to an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus that obtains an ultrasonic tomographic image from a reflected signal, and particularly to an ultrasonic probe that can be inserted into an extremely thin tube such as a blood vessel.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, angioplasty, in which a catheter inserted in a blood vessel is used to diagnose a disease such as stenosis or occlusion in the blood vessel, and which is treated with a balloon, etc. It has been attracting attention because it is simpler than the above, has less pain to patients, and has some effect. A method for diagnosing and treating a disease such as stenosis from the inside of the blood vessel is disclosed in, for example, JP-A-62-2.
There is known a structure described in Japanese Patent No. 70140 as "Catheter device and method for two-dimensional ultrasonic examination in blood vessel".

A conventional catheter device and method for two-dimensional ultrasonic examination in a blood vessel will be described below with reference to FIG. FIG. 4 is a perspective view of an ultrasonic probe which is the tip of a catheter device for two-dimensional ultrasonic examination. In FIG. 4, 41 is a catheter, 42 is an ultrasonic transducer, 43 is a rotary drive shaft, 44 is a notch, 45 is a cutter, 46 is a guide wire, 47 is a balloon, and 48 is a void.

The operation of the catheter device for two-dimensional ultrasonic examination constructed as described above will be described below. The rotary drive shaft 43 is rotated by an external drive device (not shown). The ultrasonic transducer 42 arranged on the rotary drive shaft 43 is rotated by the rotation of the rotary drive shaft 43. By further moving the rotary drive shaft 43 in front of the catheter 41 while rotating the ultrasonic transducer 42, the ultrasonic transducer 42 is moved to the position of the notch 44, and ultrasonic waves are transmitted and received at this position. This makes it possible to obtain a two-dimensional ultrasonic tomographic image in the radial direction. If there is a stenosis such as an atheroma at the diagnosed site, the ultrasonic transducer 42 is returned to the original position and the balloon 47 on the side opposite to the notch 44 is inflated to cut out the stenosis. Part 44
Try to put it inside. That is, it can be realized by pressing the cutout portion 44 against the narrowed portion with the balloon 47.

In this state, the rotary drive shaft 43 is rotated again and moved in front of the catheter 41. Rotary drive shaft 43
The rotation of the cutter 45 causes the cutter 45 to rotate at the same time and is moved forward, so that the atheroma, which is the narrowed portion in the cutout portion 44, is deleted. The atheroma thus cut off is stored in the space 48 in front of the catheter 41, and in this state, the catheter 41 is taken out of the blood vessel, so that the scraped atheroma fragment can be treated without leaving it in the blood vessel. Although it is difficult to insert the catheter 41 into a blood vessel, especially with a thin blood vessel, the guide wire 46 facilitates the insertion. That is, it is possible to move the catheter 41 to the target blood vessel by first searching for and inserting the target blood vessel with the very thin guide wire 46.

[0006] Another treatment method that is currently widely used is a method in which a balloon is arranged in the entire circumferential direction of the catheter and the balloon is inflated at the stenosis portion to expand the stenosis portion.

[0007]

However, in the above-mentioned conventional structure, since the guide wire is connected to the distal end of the catheter, when searching for a thin blood vessel using the guide wire, the entire catheter must also be operated within the blood vessel. I have to. Further, there is a problem that the guide wire is moved further at the same time when the tip of the catheter is moved to the target site, and the guide wire cannot be moved when there is a thin blood vessel that cannot pass through the guide wire.

Further, as shown in FIG. 4, the hollow portion of the catheter is very narrow and, for example, when the catheter is to be inserted into the coronary artery of the heart, the outer diameter of the catheter must be 2 g or less. There is a problem that it is difficult to pass the rotation drive spring, the guide wire, the signal wire, etc. through such a hollow portion.

The present invention is to solve the above-mentioned conventional problems. The guide wire and the catheter can be independently moved by a structure in which the guide wire is passed through the inside of the catheter, and the wire constituting the rotary drive spring is connected to the signal line. Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a catheter-embedded ultrasonic probe capable of rotating and scanning an ultrasonic transducer with a simple configuration.

[0010]

To achieve this object, an ultrasonic probe of the present invention comprises a catheter which is a hollow thin tube that can be inserted into a thin tube, a bearing joined to the tip of the catheter, and A sleeve and a vibrator holder that are inserted into bearings to rotate, a vibrator that transmits and receives ultrasonic waves that is connected to this vibrator holder, and a hollow rotary drive that is connected to a sleeve and that transmits rotational driving force. It has a spring and a guide wire that can be inserted into the hollow portion of the rotary drive spring.

As the rotary drive spring,
It has a layered structure of at least two layers or more, and has a structure in which wires constituting each layer of the two-layer portion of the plurality of layers are connected to the ultrasonic transducer as signal lines.

[0012]

According to the present invention, since the guide wire can freely move in the catheter in the anteroposterior direction, the guide wire does not bind to the catheter even when searching for a target thin blood vessel. By inserting the guide wire into the target blood vessel, the catheter can be advanced to the target blood vessel along the guide wire. Since this guide wire is passed through the rotary drive spring, the outer shape of the catheter is not increased, and the outer shape of the catheter is not increased even in the ultrasonic transducer portion.

Further, among the multi-layered springs constituting the rotary drive spring, a signal line is newly provided in the catheter by using one of the wires constituting each of the two layers as a signal line. The ultrasonic probe can be configured without using the ultrasonic probe.

[0014]

【Example】

(First Embodiment) A first embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1A is a side sectional view of an ultrasonic probe according to the first embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 1B is a sectional view taken along the line AA 'of FIG. 1A. .. In FIG. 1, 1 is an ultrasonic transducer for transmitting and receiving ultrasonic waves, 2 is a catheter, 3 is a bearing connected to the tip of the catheter 2, 4 is a sleeve that comes into contact with the inner surface of the bearing 3 and rotates, and 5 is The vibrator holder and the ultrasonic vibrator 1 that sandwich the bearing 3 together with the sleeve 4 are connected and fixed to the vibrator holder 5. Reference numeral 6 is a rotary drive spring inserted and fixed to the inner surface of the sleeve 4, and 7 is a guide wire.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus using the ultrasonic probe shown in FIG. In FIG. 2, 20 is an ultrasonic probe having the configuration shown in FIG. 1, 21 is a drive unit connected to the catheter 2 and the rotation drive spring 6,
22 is a drive motor, 23 is a rotational position detector connected to the drive motor, 24 is a transmitter connected to the ultrasonic transducer 1 in the ultrasonic probe 20, 25 is a receiver, 26 is a detector,
Reference numeral 27 is a scan conversion unit, and 28 is a display unit.

The structure of the ultrasonic probe having the above components will be described in more detail. A bearing 3 is inserted and fixed to the tip of a hollow catheter 2 made of resin, such as Teflon or polyethylene. A sleeve 4 is inserted inside the hollow bearing 3. The sleeve 4 freely rotates with respect to the bearing 3, and the tip portion of the sleeve 4 is protruded from the bearing 3, and the vibrator holder 5 is inserted and fixed to the tip portion. That is, the bearing 3 is sandwiched between the sleeve 4 and the vibrator holder 5, and thus the vibrator holder 5 rotates together with the sleeve 4 without being disengaged from the bearing 3.

The ultrasonic oscillator 1 is fixed to the oscillator holder 5 and joined to a signal line (not shown). The rotary drive spring 6 passes through the catheter 2 and is fixed to the sleeve 4 inserted in the hollow of the bearing 3. Guide wire 7
Passes through the space inside the rotary drive spring 6 and passes through the sleeve 4
The space inside the ultrasonic holder 5 is used from the tip of the transducer holder 5 to pass outward from the tip of the transducer holder 5. This guide wire 7
Since there is no portion for fixing the guide wire 7 in the portion through which the guide wire 7 passes, only the guide wire 7 can be freely moved.

Further, the shape of the oscillator holder becomes thinner toward the tip, facilitating the insertion of the catheter 2 into the blood vessel, and even when the catheter 2 is moved in a thin blood vessel.
A safe diagnostic treatment is possible without damaging the inner wall of the blood vessel.

The operation of the ultrasonic probe constructed as above will be described below. First, catheter 2
In order to move the guide wire 7 to the target affected area, the guide wire 7 which is extremely thinner than the outer diameter of the catheter 2 is inserted into the target blood vessel, and the guide wire 7 is moved to a position ahead of the affected area. By moving the catheter 2 along the guide wire 7, the catheter 2 thicker than the guide wire 7 can be moved to the target affected area. When the catheter 2 is located near the affected area, the distal end of the guide wire 7 is returned into the sleeve 4. In this state, the rotary drive spring 6 is rotated by the drive motor 22 in the drive unit 21 located at the rear end of the catheter 2 shown in FIG. This rotation driving force is transmitted to the rotation driving spring 6 and rotates the sleeve 4 and the vibrator holder 5. The ultrasonic oscillator 1 is rotated in the radial direction by the rotation of the oscillator holder 5.
In this state, the transmitter 24 sends an ultrasonic wave transmission signal to the ultrasonic transducer 1 through a signal line (not shown). The ultrasonic transducer 1 that has received the ultrasonic transmission signal is converted into ultrasonic waves, and the ultrasonic waves transmitted from the ultrasonic transducer 1 propagate inside the blood vessel and are reflected at various positions due to the difference in acoustic impedance, and the ultrasonic waves are transmitted again. It returns to the acoustic wave oscillator 1 and is converted into an electric signal.

The reflected signal passes through the signal line, is amplified by the receiving section 25, is detected by the detecting section 26, is converted into a standard television signal by the scanning converting section 27, and a two-dimensional ultrasonic tomographic image is displayed on the display section. 28 is displayed. The rotational position signal necessary for displaying the two-dimensional ultrasonic tomographic image is a rotational position detector 23 such as an encoder connected to the drive motor 22.
And is input to the scan conversion unit 27. A signal line (not shown) passes from the ultrasonic transducer 1 through the transducer holder 5 and is arranged so as to extend along the gap between the rotation driving spring 6 and the guide wire 7 or the outside of the rotation driving spring 6. Is connected to the receiver 25.

In such an ultrasonic probe that can be inserted into an extremely thin blood vessel, the outer diameter of the catheter 2 must be 2 g or less in order to make the coronary artery the target site. The components of the ultrasonic probe of this embodiment are relatively large, can be constructed by machining on the order of several hundreds of microns, and can be produced by an electric discharge machine or the like. The inner diameter of the catheter 2 is
The rotation drive spring 6 that allows the inner space to pass has a sufficient area for passing the guide wire 7 by constructing a wire material of several tens of microns in a plurality of lines and in a multilayer structure. While transmitting the rotational driving force.

As described above, the bearing 3 is attached to the distal end of the hollow catheter 2 made of resin such as Teflon or polyethylene.
Is inserted and fixed, the sleeve 4 is inserted inside the bearing 3, and the vibrator holder 5 is inserted from the opposite side and fixed so as to freely rotate with respect to the inner surface of the bearing 3. With a small number of parts, it is possible to configure a mechanism for rotationally driving the ultrasonic transducer 1 in the radial direction on the thin-tube catheter 2, and further, the guide wire 7 is passed through the rotation driving spring 6 and the transducer holder 5 and passed in front of the catheter 2. Thus, the guide wire 7 can be moved independently of the catheter 2.

(Second Embodiment) A second embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 3 shows the rotary drive spring 6 in FIG.
FIG. 11 is a view showing another configuration of the rotary drive spring 6 having a plurality of rows and a multilayer structure. FIG. 3 shows a three-row two-layer structure. That is, the three wires arranged in parallel make the first
The second layer 31 having the same structure is provided so as to form the spring shape of the layer 30 and cover this one layer. Reference numerals 32 and 33 denote a first signal line and a second signal line, which are insulation-coated with one of the three wires constituting each layer as a material for transmitting an electric signal.

By using the first signal line 32 and the second signal line 33 as signal lines for connecting the ultrasonic transducer 1 to the transmitting section 24 and the receiving section 25, the inside of the rotary drive spring 6 or The ultrasonic probe can be configured without arranging the signal line along the outer side of the rotary drive spring 6, and the extremely thin inner space inside the catheter 2 can be efficiently used, and the outer diameter of the catheter 2 can be effectively used. Need not be increased.

By providing a balloon on these ultrasonic probes, conventional treatment can be performed together.

[0028]

As described above, according to the present invention, a catheter which is a hollow thin tube which can be inserted into a thin tube, a bearing joined to the distal end of the catheter, a sleeve and a vibrator holder which are inserted into the bearing and rotate. And an ultrasonic transducer that transmits and receives ultrasonic waves inserted in this transducer holder, a hollow rotation drive spring that is connected to the transducer holder and transmits the rotation driving force, and is inserted in the hollow portion of the rotation drive spring. By having a simple structure of a possible guide wire, the ultrasonic transducer formed in the catheter can be rotationally driven in the radial direction, and two-dimensional information in the blood vessel can be acquired and displayed from the blood vessel. By inserting the guide wire into the rotary drive spring inside the catheter, the guide wire can be moved independently of the catheter, and an ultrasonic probe that is extremely excellent for diagnosis is provided. It can be current.

Further, the rotary drive spring has a multi-layer structure and a multi-layer structure, and two spring-shaped wires constituting two layers of the rotary drive spring are insulated and coated with two signal lines. An ultrasonic probe that can be effectively used in a limited catheter can be realized by connecting the ultrasonic probe.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a sectional view of an ultrasonic probe according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block connection diagram of an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus using the ultrasonic probe shown in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a side view of a rotary drive spring that is a main part of an ultrasonic probe according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a partial cross-sectional view of a conventional catheter device for two-dimensional ultrasonic examination.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Ultrasonic Transducer 2 Catheter 3 Bearing 4 Sleeve 5 Transducer Holder 6 Rotation Drive Spring 7 Guide Wire 20 Ultrasonic Probe 21 Drive Unit 22 Drive Motor 23 Rotation Position Detector 24 Transmitter 25 Transmitter 25 Detector 26 Scan Conversion unit 28 Display unit 30 First layer 31 Second layer 32 First signal line 33 Second signal line 41 Catheter 42 Ultrasonic transducer 43 Rotation drive shaft 44 Notch 45 Cutter 46 Guide wire 47 Balloon 48 Void

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continued Front Page (72) Inventor Haruo Omori 1-1-6 Takeyama, Midori-ku, Yokohama-shi, Kanagawa Takeyama housing complex 1601-124

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A catheter, which is a hollow thin tube that can be inserted into a thin tube, and a bearing connected to the tip of the catheter.
A sleeve that is inserted into the bearing and rotates, a vibrator holder that is connected to the sleeve, and an ultrasonic vibrator that transmits and receives ultrasonic waves that is connected and fixed to the vibrator holder,
An ultrasonic probe comprising a hollow rotary drive spring connected to the sleeve, and a guide wire insertable into the hollow portion of the rotary drive spring. 2. The rotary drive spring has a multi-layered structure,
The ultrasonic probe according to claim 1, wherein one of the constituent spring wires is insulated in at least two layers and is connected to the ultrasonic transducer as a signal line.