JPH0595912A - Measuring apparatus for hardness of organic tissue - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To enable highly accurate measurement of the hardness of an organic tissue by a method wherein a fixed area alone of an organic tissue is held to vibrate by a vibration means and the amplitude and resonance frequency of a vibration wave in a vibration area is measured to be converted into the hardness of the tissue. CONSTITUTION:In measurement, first, a probe 2 is introduced into an organism through a channel 4a of an endoscope 4 and sticks out at the tip of the probe 2 from the tip of the channel 4a. Then, with the tip of the probe 2 abutting a part to be measured of an organic tissue, a pump is driven to suck or exhaust air through a through hole 12 of a fiber fixing member 10 so that the area alone of the part to be measured wrapped with a tip rim of the probe 2 is held in the organic tissue while a measuring area is vibrated with the suction or exhaustion of the air. With the vibration, an optical path length between the light source 14 and the part 22a to be measured varies and the brightness in an interference fringe between an outgoing light and the reflected light changes. Thus, the frequency of change in the brightness is measured to determine the hardness of the part to be measured based on the measurement results.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a living tissue hardness measuring device for measuring the hardness of living tissue to diagnose a lesion site.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in gastric scirrhosis diagnosis and the like, the fact that a tumor such as cancer has a difference in hardness from normal tissue is used to measure the hardness of the living tissue and Discrimination between normal tissues and tumors such as cancer is performed.

The hardness of the living tissue is known by, for example, bringing a vibrating section as a vibrating means of the hardness measuring device into contact with the living tissue to vibrate it and measuring the amplitude or resonance frequency of the vibration wave. You can do it
372 publication).

[0004]

However, in the above-mentioned conventional hardness measuring device, the vibrating portion as the vibrating means is simply applied to the living tissue, and therefore the living tissue is applied to the vibrating portion. It only vibrated in a wide range around the given area. Therefore, the vibrating region of the living tissue varies depending on the way of applying the vibrating portion to the living tissue, the orientation, and the like, which causes an error in the measurement value, resulting in poor measurement accuracy. The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to provide a biological tissue hardness measuring device having good measurement accuracy.

[0005]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention provides a biological tissue hardness measuring device for holding a limited region of biological tissue and vibrating the limited region. It is configured by means, means for measuring the amplitude or resonance frequency of the vibration wave in the limited vibration region, and means for converting the measured amplitude or resonance frequency into tissue hardness.

[0006]

Function: The living tissue is uniformly held only in a certain region thereof and uniformly vibrated.

[0007]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. 1 to 4 show a first embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 1A, the biological tissue hardness measuring device 1 of this embodiment includes a hardness measuring probe 2 that can be inserted into and removed from a channel 4a of an endoscope 4. The hardness measuring probe 2 is configured by inserting an optical fiber 8 into a flexible tube 6 at a substantially axial center portion. The optical fiber 8 is connected to the light source 14 (see FIG. 2), and is fitted in the tip portion of the tube 6 at a position separated from the tip of the tube 6 by a certain distance.
It is held by 0.

As shown in FIG. 1B, the fiber fixing member 10 is provided with a plurality of through holes 12. Also,
The probe 2 can suck and exhaust air from the through hole 12 through the tube 6 by a pump (not shown) provided on the proximal end side thereof, and the tip of the probe 2 is abutted against a living tissue, and the aspiration operation of the pump causes the probe 2 to move. A means for holding only a region of the biological tissue surrounded by the tip edge of the probe 2 is configured, and a vibrating means for weakly sucking / exhausting by the suction force thereof is configured, and is held at the timing of the suction / exhaust. The living tissue part can be vibrated. That is, the living tissue hardness measuring apparatus 1 can vibrate while holding a limited region of living tissue.

Further, as shown in FIG. 2, the optical system 19 provided on the base end side of the probe 2 includes a light source 14 and a CCD 2.
0, a mirror 16 and a half mirror 18. The half mirror 18 reflects a part of the light emitted from the light source 14 to the mirror 16, transmits the rest of the light toward the tissue 22, and reflects the reflected light from the tissue 22 toward the CCD 20 so that the mirror 16 It has a property of transmitting reflected light from the CCD 20 toward the CCD 20. Therefore, a part of the light emitted from the light source 14 is reflected by the half mirror 18 and is reflected by the mirror 1.
The remaining light from the light source 14 is transmitted through the half mirror 18, is transmitted to the tip of the probe 2 by the optical fiber 8, and is irradiated toward the tissue 22.
Further, the reflected light from the tissue 22 is reflected by the half mirror 18 and sent to the CCD 20, and the mirror 1
The reflected light from 6 passes through the half mirror 18 and is sent to the CCD.

In the optical system 19 having the above structure, the tissue 2
Since the optical path length between the light source 14 and the tissue 22 is changed by the vibration of 2, the interference fringes of the emitted light from the light source 14 (reflected light from the mirror 16) and the reflected light from the tissue 22 observed by the CCD 20 are generated. The brightness changes. Therefore, in this case, it is possible to easily know the frequency or the amplitude at which the tissue 22 vibrates by measuring the number of times the brightness of the interference fringes changes, and this is combined with the optical system 19 having the above-mentioned configuration. It constitutes a means for measuring the amplitude or resonance frequency of the vibration wave in the limited vibration region in the biological tissue hardness measuring device 1 of the present embodiment.

By measuring a large number of various tissues of which hardness is known in advance by the above method, the correlation between the hardness of the tissue and the frequency or amplitude of the vibration of the tissue is obtained, and the hardness is graded. Put on. Then, the hardness is obtained from the amplitude or resonance frequency of the vibration wave of the actually measured vibration region of the biological tissue based on the correlation data, and this can be displayed as a grade value. For example, the result of calculating the hardness grade value by performing these calculations can be displayed on a digital display. This constitutes means for converting the measured amplitude or resonance frequency in the tissue hardness measuring apparatus 1 of the present embodiment into tissue hardness.

Next, the biological tissue hardness measuring device 1 having the above structure
The operation will be described. First, as shown in FIG. 3, the probe 2 is introduced into the living body through the channel 4a of the endoscope 4, and the tip of the probe 2 is projected from the tip of the channel 4a. Here, the endoscope 4 transmits the light from the light source 14 to the inside of the living body by the ride guide 25 connected to the light source 14, so that the inside of the living body can be observed.

When the tip of the probe 2 is projected from the tip of the channel 4a, the measured portion 22a of the living tissue 22 is measured.
The tip of the probe 2 is brought into contact with the above, and the above-described air suction / exhaust operation is performed by the pump (not shown). In this case, the air is sucked and exhausted through the through hole 12 of the fiber fixing member 10, and only the region of the measured portion 22a surrounded by the tip edge of the probe 2 of the living tissue 22 is retained and adjusted to the intake and exhaust timing. Vibrates.

The light source 1 is caused by the vibration of the measured portion 22a.
4 and the measured portion 22a change the optical path length,
Light emitted from the light source 14 observed at 20 and the measured portion 22
The brightness of the interference fringe with the reflected light from a changes. At this time, the number of times that the brightness of the interference fringes changes is measured to obtain the frequency or amplitude of the vibration wave of the measured portion 22a. Then, the hardness of the measured portion 22a is measured from the obtained frequency or amplitude by the hardness conversion means described above.

Therefore, the living tissue hardness measuring apparatus 1 having the above-mentioned configuration can surely hold and vibrate only a certain region of the living tissue 22 surrounded by the tip edge of the probe 2, and thus it is obtained. There is no variation in the measured values for each measurement performed, and the measurement accuracy is good.

FIG. 5 shows a second embodiment of the present invention. The biological tissue hardness measuring device 30 of this embodiment is the endoscope 3
2, the hood 34 is attached to the tip of the endoscope 32. Channel 3 for insertion of the treatment instrument of the endoscope 32
6 can suck and exhaust air from the tip opening by a pump (not shown) provided on the proximal end side thereof, and abut the tip of the hood 34 against the living tissue, and the suction and exhaust operation of the pump causes the hood 34 of the living tissue to move. By holding only the area surrounded by the tip edge, it is possible to vibrate in accordance with the timing of the intake and exhaust,
This constitutes a means for holding and vibrating the limited region of the biological tissue in the biological tissue hardness measuring device 30 of the present embodiment.

Further, the endoscope 32 has an optical fiber 38 over its entire length, and the optical fiber 38 is the first optical fiber 38.
It is connected to the optical system 19 having the same configuration as that of the embodiment. Then, the biological tissue hardness measuring device 30 uses the light source 1 to be observed by the CCD 20 of the optical system 19 as in the first embodiment.
4 (light reflected from the mirror 16) and tissue 22
By measuring the number of times that the brightness of the interference fringes with the reflected light from (see FIGS. 1 to 4) changes, the frequency or amplitude at which the tissue 22 vibrates can be easily known. Together with the optical system 19 of FIG. 3, a means for measuring the amplitude or resonance frequency of the vibration wave in the limited vibration region in the biological tissue hardness measuring device 30 of this embodiment is configured. The means for converting the measured amplitude or resonance frequency in the tissue hardness measuring device 30 into tissue hardness is the same as in the first embodiment.

Therefore, the living tissue hardness measuring apparatus 30 having the above-described structure can surely hold and vibrate only a certain region of the living tissue 22 surrounded by the tip edge of the hood 34, so that the first device can be vibrated. It has the same effect as the embodiment. Note that the tissue 22 may be vibrated by vibrating the air with a small microphone through the channel 36 of the endoscope 32.

6 and 7 show a third embodiment of the present invention. Biological tissue hardness measuring device 40 of the present embodiment
As shown in FIG. 6, is equipped with a hardness measuring probe 42 that can be inserted into and removed from the channel 4 a of the endoscope 4. The hardness measuring probe 42 is made of a flexible tube 6, and has a cylindrical piezoelectric vibrator 44 at a position within the distal end of the tube 6 and apart from the distal end of the tube 6 by a certain distance.
Is fitted. Then, the probe 42 can suck and exhaust air from the through hole 45 of the piezoelectric vibrator through the tube 6 by a pump (not shown) provided at the base end side thereof, and the tip of the probe 42 is abutted against the living tissue 22 to Only the region (measurement site 22a) of the biological tissue 22 surrounded by the tip edge of the probe 42 is drawn into the probe 42 and held by the inhalation operation of the pump, and can be adsorbed to the piezoelectric vibrator 44. As a result, the vibration operation of the piezoelectric vibrator 44
The measured portion 22a can be vibrated by being transmitted to a. This is the biological tissue hardness measuring device 40 of this embodiment.
It constitutes a means for holding and vibrating a limited region of the living tissue.

The piezoelectric vibrator 44 is electrically connected to an impedance analyzer (not shown),
Thereby, the resonance frequency of the vibration wave of the measurement site 22a can be measured, and the amplitude or resonance frequency of the vibration wave in the limited vibration region of the biological tissue hardness measuring device 40 of the present embodiment is measured. Constitutes a means.

Incidentally, in this embodiment, the means for converting the measured amplitude or resonance frequency into the hardness of the tissue may be the same as that of the first embodiment, but the following means may be used.

That is, in order to draw the region of the living tissue 22 surrounded by the tip edge of the probe 42 (measurement site 22a) into the probe 42 and cause it to be adsorbed to the piezoelectric vibrator 44, the pressure inside the probe 42 is changed to the outside air. Negative pressure is used, but this negative pressure value is changed to several points to measure the resonance frequency, and if the result is plotted on the horizontal axis as the negative pressure value and the vertical axis as the resonance frequency, The graph becomes a substantially straight line, and the inclination of the straight line varies depending on the hardness, so the hardness can be known from the inclination.

Therefore, since the biological tissue hardness measuring device 40 having the above-mentioned configuration can cause the piezoelectric vibrator 44 to attract and vibrate only a certain region of the biological tissue 22 surrounded by the tip edge of the probe 42, It has the same effect as the first embodiment. The tube 6 may be made rigid and the tube 6 itself may be used as a vibration horn.

[0024]

As described above, according to the present invention,
Since it is possible to reliably hold and vibrate only a certain region of the biological tissue, there is no variation in the measured values obtained for each measurement, and the measurement accuracy is good.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1A is a sectional view of a main part of a biological tissue hardness measuring apparatus showing a first embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 1B is a sectional view taken along the line AA of FIG.

FIG. 2 is a schematic configuration diagram of an optical system of the biological tissue hardness measuring device of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a schematic view showing a mode in which the biological tissue hardness measuring device of FIG. 1 is used with an endoscope.

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view showing an operation mode of the biological tissue hardness measuring device of FIG. 1.

FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view of essential parts of a biological tissue hardness measuring device showing a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional view of essential parts of a biological tissue hardness measuring device showing a third embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a cross-sectional view showing an operation mode of the biological tissue hardness measurement device of FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

1, 30, 40 ... Body tissue hardness measuring device, 2, 42 ... Hardness measuring probe, 4, 32 ... Endoscope, 12 ... Through hole, 4
4 ... Piezoelectric vibrator.

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of front page (72) Inventor Yumi Hirao 2-43-2 Hatagaya, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo Olympus Optical Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Yorio Matsui 2-43-2 Hatagaya, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo Olympus Optical Industry Co., Ltd.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A means for holding a limited region of a biological tissue, a means for vibrating the limited region, a means for measuring an amplitude or a resonance frequency of a vibration wave in the limited vibration region, and a measurement. And a means for converting the amplitude or the resonance frequency into the hardness of the tissue.