JPH1014967A - Ultrasonic hyperthermia apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To achieve a thermal treatment preventing damages to normal tissues for affected parts existing at jutted parts. SOLUTION: This apparatus is provided with an ultrasonic transducer array 31 to be arranged facing an affected part 12 existing at a protruded part 11 an energy supply part 33 for heating and an ultrasonic image gaining part 34 which are connected to the array 31 through a switching part 32, an image processing part 35 which processes an ultrasonic image to identify the affected part 12 from a normal tissue and a control part 36 to control the energy supply part 33 for heating based on information of the affected part 12 obtained.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

The present invention relates to an apparatus for performing hyperthermia treatment by irradiating an ultrasonic wave.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A hyperthermia apparatus performs treatment by heating an affected part such as a cancer or a tumor. The ultrasonic hyperthermia device uses ultrasonic waves as heating energy. That is, when an ultrasonic wave is applied to a living body, the ultrasonic energy is converted into heat in the tissue in the living body, and that portion is heated.

[0003] In this hyperthermia treatment, it is necessary to heat only the affected part and not to heat other normal tissues. This is because heating normal tissue causes damage such as burns.

[0004]

However, in the conventional ultrasonic hyperthermia apparatus, there is a problem that it is not always possible to heat only the affected part, and there is a risk of damaging surrounding normal tissues.

[0005] In view of the above, the present invention focuses on the fact that it is easy to distinguish an affected part such as cancer from an ultrasonic image and to easily focus an ultrasonic wave on the affected part. It is an object of the present invention to provide an ultrasonic hyperthermia device improved so that treatment can be performed only on an affected part while focusing ultrasonic waves on the affected part so as not to harm normal tissues.

[0006]

In order to achieve the above object, in an ultrasonic hyperthermia apparatus according to the present invention, an ultrasonic transducer is provided which is opposed to a projection of a body to be heated via an impedance matching liquid. A two-dimensional array, a heating energy supply unit for driving the transducer array to generate heating ultrasonic waves, and a drive unit for driving the transducer array to generate search ultrasonic waves and to use a reflected wave received by the transducer array. An ultrasonic image acquisition unit for processing a received signal to obtain a reflected wave intensity distribution image; a switching unit for switching between the transducer array, the heating energy supply unit and the ultrasonic image acquisition unit; From the wave intensity distribution image, an image processing unit that detects an affected part existing in the protruding part of the body to be heated,
In addition to controlling the switching unit, a control unit that controls the heating energy supply unit so that the heating ultrasound is focused on the detected affected part is provided.

[0007] The diseased part existing in the protruding part can be easily distinguished from the normal tissue based on the ultrasonic image. If the affected part is present in the protruding part, it is easy to focus the heating ultrasonic wave on the affected part. In view of this, a two-dimensional array of ultrasonic transducers is opposed to the protruding portion via a liquid for impedance matching,
Obtain an ultrasound image using this transducer array,
The affected area is identified from the image, and the heating energy supply unit is controlled so that the heating ultrasonic wave is focused on the affected area. When the affected area is present in the protruding section, only the affected area is heated, and the normal tissue is heated. Perform warming treatment of the affected area while preventing normal tissue damage.

[0008]

Next, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. In FIG. 1, it is assumed that an affected part 12 is present at a protruding part 11 of a living body (body of a patient) 10. A bolus (flexible water bag) 21 is brought into close contact with the surface near the protrusion 11. The bolus 21 is filled with degassed water 22. A two-dimensional array 31 of ultrasonic transducers is arranged in the degassed water 22, and the ultrasonic waves from the ultrasonic transducer array 31 are applied to the living body 10 via the degassed water 22. The degassed water 22 functions as a liquid for impedance matching of ultrasonic waves between the living body 10 and the ultrasonic transducer array 31.

A heating energy supply unit 33 is connected to the ultrasonic transducer array 31 via a switching unit 32.
The ultrasonic image acquisition unit 34 is connected. The heating energy supply unit 33 supplies a driving signal of high power to the ultrasonic transducer array 31, thereby generating ultrasonic vibration of large energy from the driven ultrasonic transducer array 31 and heating the living body 10. You.

[0010] The ultrasonic image acquisition unit 34 drives the ultrasonic transducer array 31 to generate a search-use synthetic ultrasonic wave. In order to form the synthetic ultrasound for search into a thin beam, the amplitude and phase of the drive signal supplied to each element of the ultrasound transducer array 31 are controlled. When the search ultrasonic wave is applied to the inside of the living body 10, it is reflected by the tissue in the living body 10, and the reflected wave returns and is received by the ultrasonic transducer array 31. By controlling the phase of the received signal at each element of the ultrasonic transducer array 31, the reflected wave intensity at each part of a narrow area (received ultrasonic beam) corresponding to the transmitted ultrasonic beam is obtained. The transmitted and received ultrasonic beams are scanned to obtain a reflected wave intensity distribution image on a certain cross section.

The reflected wave intensity distribution image is sent to the image processing unit 35, where image processing for detecting the affected part 12 is performed. When the diseased part 12 such as cancer is located in the inner part of the living body 10, it is difficult to distinguish it from tissues having various reflected wave intensities such as internal organs. The reflected wave intensity is different, such as being stronger (or weaker in some cases), and is easily distinguishable from surrounding tissues. Therefore, the affected part 12 can be detected by determining an appropriate threshold value in the image processing unit 35 and performing threshold processing on the image.

When the position and size of the affected part 12 are detected in this way, the information is sent to the control part 36, and the control part 36 controls the heating energy supply part 33 based on the information. As a result, the phase and the amplitude of the drive signal supplied to each element of the ultrasonic transducer array 31 are adjusted, and a synthetic ultrasonic wave to be focused on the affected part 12 is generated. At this time, the switching unit 32 is controlled by the control unit 36.
Is switched to the heating energy supply unit 33 side under the control of.

In this way, the heating energy is focused on the diseased part 12 of the protruding part 11, so that only the diseased part 12 can be heated. In this case, since the affected part 12 is on the protruding part 11,
It is easy to control so that the heating energy is focused on the normal tissue, thereby preventing other normal tissues from being heated and preventing the normal tissue from being damaged by excessive heating.

In the above description, the image processing unit 35 performs threshold processing on the ultrasonic image obtained by the ultrasonic image acquiring unit 34 to automatically detect the diseased part 12, and the heating energy supply unit 33 responds accordingly. Although it is assumed to be controlled, an ultrasonic image is displayed on an appropriate monitor device (not shown), and an operator such as a doctor observes the image to identify the affected area 12 and heats the area by operating a mouse or the like. The region to be set can be set manually. Further, since the reflection coefficient of the ultrasonic wave changes due to the temperature change, it is conceivable to convert the ultrasonic image into a temperature distribution image using this. That is, the switching unit 32 is temporarily switched to the ultrasonic image acquiring unit 34 during the heating, an ultrasonic image is obtained by ultrasonic emission and reception, and the ultrasonic image is converted into a temperature distribution image. The control unit 36 controls the heating energy supply unit 33 based on this temperature distribution image, so that it is possible to perform ultrasonic irradiation so as to obtain an optimal temperature distribution.

[0015]

As described above, according to the ultrasonic hyperthermia apparatus of the present invention, it is easy to identify an affected part such as cancer by an ultrasonic image, particularly for an affected part existing in a protruding part. Paying attention to the fact that it is easy to focus the ultrasonic waves, it becomes possible to focus the ultrasonic waves on the protruding diseased part and to treat only the diseased part while not damaging normal tissues.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Living body 11 Projecting part 12 Affected part 21 Bolus 22 Deaerated water 31 Ultrasonic transducer array 32 Switching part 33 Heating energy supply part 34 Ultrasonic image acquisition part 35 Image processing part 36 Control part

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A two-dimensional array of ultrasonic transducers disposed opposite to a protruding portion of an object to be heated via an impedance matching liquid, and heating for driving the transducer array to generate ultrasonic waves for heating. An energy supply unit, an ultrasonic image acquisition unit that drives the transducer array to generate search ultrasonic waves, and processes a received signal by a reflected wave received by the transducer array to obtain a reflected wave intensity distribution image; A switching unit for switching between a transducer array and the above-mentioned heating energy supply unit and the ultrasonic image acquisition unit, and an image processing unit for detecting an affected part existing in the protruding part of the body to be heated from the reflected wave intensity distribution image And controlling the switching unit and controlling the heating energy supply unit to focus the heating ultrasonic wave on the detected affected part. An ultrasonic hyperthermia device, comprising: a control unit.