JPS63267346A - Ultrasonic medical treatment apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To easily and exactly locate and follow a calculus before medical treatment over a wide observation range and efficiently perform medical treatment, by extracting the part having a definite echo intensity in the ultrasonic tomographic image obtained at every definite position to detect the coordinates thereof and moving the focal position of a strong shock wave on the basis of the coordinates. CONSTITUTION:The echo signal of the ultrasonic wave obtained by an ultrasonic probe 3 is sent to an ultrasonic wave observation apparatus 9 through a rotary transformer 7 to obtain a B-mode image. This data is taken in an image processor 10 to be subjected to processings such as binarization, the calculation of an area or the like and the extraction of a calculus 2 is performed and the gravity position thereof is calculated to be outputted to a position detector 11. The position detector 11 detects the difference between the gravity position and the position of a focus F and the signal thereof is outputted to a position controller 12 which in turn performs control so as to allow both positions to coincide with each other to drive a strong ultrasonic wave generator moving apparatus 13. By repeating the above-mentioned operation, continuous focal matching is performed.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION r Industrial Application Fields The present invention is an ultrasonic treatment device, more specifically, an ultrasonic treatment device that concentrates an ultrasonic shock wave from outside the body on a stone to be treated inside the body. The present invention relates to an ultrasonic treatment device that performs treatment.

[Prior Art] Conventionally, this type of ultrasonic treatment device is
As shown in Publication No. 145131, an ultrasonic probe is provided in the center of a powerful ultrasonic generator,
As shown in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 61-31140, an ultrasonic wave probe that can move over a wide range and focuses powerful ultrasonic waves on the stone being searched for, As shown in Japanese Patent No. 61-37149, a device equipped with a position detection device that detects the position from two directions is known. In addition, the present applicant also previously applied for a patent application in 1986.
No. 282,979 proposes a device in which an ultrasonic probe can also be displaced in a direction perpendicular to its scanning direction.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] However, in the ultrasonic treatment device disclosed in the above-mentioned Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 60-145131, the ultrasonic probe is disposed only in the center of the powerful ultrasonic generator. Therefore, the observation range is narrow and the stone position may not be detected in some cases. Therefore, the above patent application No. 61-282
If it were made to be able to move in the direction perpendicular to the scanning direction as in the device of No. 979, it would be possible to follow the movement of the stone position, but it would be difficult to capture the stone position before treatment. In addition, because focusing was done manually, the accuracy of powerful ultrasound was low when stones were moved due to breathing, etc.

Furthermore, although the ultrasonic treatment device disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 61-31140 can have a wide observation range, it is combined with a suspension system for the patient while bathing in an aquarium, making the device extremely cumbersome. It has the disadvantage of being Furthermore, since the ultrasonic treatment device disclosed in JP-A No. 61-37149 uses X-rays for the detection device, it is harmful to the human body, and when two ultrasonic probes are used, Each scan 'I' Ij passes through the focal point of the shock wave reflector and is arranged so that the axes are perpendicular to each other, so it has the disadvantage that the observation range is limited and cannot be said to be completely satisfactory. Was.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to eliminate the drawbacks of the conventional ultrasonic treatment device as described above, expand the viewing range, easily capture the stone position before treatment, and accurately determine the stone position. To provide an ultrasonic treatment device capable of tracking and efficiently performing treatment.

[Means and effects for solving the problems] The present invention has the following features:
In order to achieve the above object, an ultrasonic generating means having an ultrasonic transducer and generating a strong shock wave for treatment, and an ultrasonic wave provided in the ultrasonic generating means for detecting the position of a stone. a probe, an ultrasonic probe for detecting the stone position before treatment, which is disposed near the ultrasonic generating means, and an ultrasonic probe for detecting the stone position before treatment; A means for displacing the sound wave around the sound wave generating means, a means for extracting a part of a certain echo intensity in an ultrasonic tomographic image obtained at a certain position, and a means for detecting the coordinates, and a means for detecting the coordinates of the echo intensity. The apparatus is characterized by comprising a means for moving the focal point of the shock wave, wherein the ultrasonic probe for stone location detection is provided at a location other than the center of the ultrasonic wave generating means, and the stone is automatically tracked. The means to do this is to use either or both of the above two ultrasonic probes to scan near the stone location by swinging it at a small angle, image processing the angle information, and then using the ultrasound probe based on this position information. The system is designed to constantly focus the powerful ultrasonic waves.

[Example] Hereinafter, the present invention will be explained based on illustrated embodiments.

FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of an ultrasonic treatment apparatus showing a first embodiment of the present invention. In Fig. 1, numeral 1 is a human body, 2 is a stone in the human body, and 3 and 4 are electronic sector type ultrasound probes, which obtain tomographic images of the range 15 and 16 indicated by dotted lines, respectively. . Then, the ultrasonic probe 3
is designed to be rotated by a probe mover 8 using, for example, a stepping motor, and the exploration Kawagoe & Wave probe 4 can be rotated by a probe mover 8 using, for example, a stepping motor or an X-Y-2 stage. The rotation direction and 3 are controlled by the child mover 8.
It is now possible to shift in the dimensional direction. and a powerful ultrasonic generator 5 in which the ultrasonic probe 3 mentioned above is disposed in the center and the ultrasonic probe 4 is disposed in the vicinity.
As is well known, a plurality of ultrasonic transducers are arranged in a spherical shell, and is driven by a powerful ultrasonic drive circuit 6.
Powerful ultrasonic waves are focused on the focal point F of the spherical shell. Also, between this powerful ultrasonic generator a75 and the human body 1, there is a water bag (not shown) made of soft resin or the like.
The inside thereof is filled with an ultrasonic transmission medium such as water.

The ultrasonic probe 3.4, which is displaced in the rotational direction and the three-dimensional direction, has an ultrasonic view 7Il at each position.
Transmission pulses are transmitted from the ll device 9 via the rotary transformer 7, and conversely, the received pulses are returned from the ultrasonic probes 3 and 4 to the ultra-n wave viewing device 9 via the rotary transformer 7 as a B-mode image. Is displayed. The rotary transformer 7 is well known and is capable of transmitting electrical signals to rotating parts without using contacts. Image information from the ultrasonic view 1111 device 9 is sent to the image processing device 1
0 manually, and the coordinates of the center of gravity of the stone are calculated. On the other hand, the position detection device 11 detects the difference between the coordinates of the center of gravity and the coordinates of the focal point F of the powerful ultrasonic generator 5, and
2, the powerful ultrasonic generator moving device 13 is driven so as to eliminate the above-mentioned difference and make the image points coincide.

The ultrasonic treatment apparatus in this embodiment configured as described above operates as follows. If no calculus is found in the tomographic image of the probe 3, first rotate the exploration ultrasonic probe 4 about its central axis 18 while rotating the central axis 19 of the powerful ultrasonic generator 5. Rotate around x, y, z
The stone 2 in the human body 1 is searched for by driving and scanning over a wide range in three-dimensional directions. When the pre-treatment stone position is confirmed in a certain tomographic image, the powerful ultrasonic generator moving device 13 is driven via the position control device 12 based on the IN information to the position of the stone 2. Powerful ultrasonic generator 5
is moved to an observation range 15 having a focal point F on the central axis 19. After the movement, the stone crushing operation is performed while automatically tracking the stone 2 based on the tomographic image of the view Δ;1 range 15 of the ultrasonic probe 3. That is, the ultrasonic echo signal obtained by the ultrasonic probe 3 is sent to the ultrasonic viewing/I-1 device 9 via the rotary transformer 7, and a B-mode image is obtained. This information is then taken into the image processing device 10, subjected to processing such as binarization and area calculation, extraction of the stone 2, calculation of its center of gravity position, and output to the position detection device 11. The position detection device 11 detects the difference between the center of gravity position and the focal point F position, and outputs the signal to the position control device 12. The position control device 12 performs control based on this signal so that the image points coincide with each other, and the powerful ultrasonic generator moving device 1
3 is driven. Continuous focusing is performed by repeating the above operations.

In this way, in the ultrasonic treatment device according to this embodiment,
By using the ultrasonic probe 4 for exploration, the kA measurement range is greatly expanded, making it extremely easy to roughly capture the stone location before treatment.Furthermore, by automatically tracking the stone location,
The stone crushing effect can be greatly improved compared to conventional ones.

In this example, in image processing when automatically tracking a stone, the center of gravity of the echo of the stone was considered to be the actual stone position. It is also possible to judge the size of the stone from the area (see figure) and perform stone crushing until this area falls below a certain size. Furthermore, it is also possible to detect the size of a stone by removing each echo missing portion.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of the main parts of an ultrasound treatment apparatus showing a second embodiment of the present invention. The ultrasonic treatment apparatus in this embodiment is also constructed in substantially the same manner as the ultrasonic treatment apparatus shown in FIG. It differs in that it can be swung towards the other direction.

If the exploration ultrasonic probe 4 is made to be able to swing in this way, after the exploration ultrasound probe 4 captures the calculus 2 in the direction centered on the axis 18, the position of the calculus and the powerful ultrasonic While the powerful ultrasonic wave generator 5 is moved so that the focal point F of the sound wave generator 5 coincides with the focus F, the ultrasonic probe 4 can be swung in the direction of the arrow while following the position of the calculus 2. . After focusing on the stone 2, the stone 2 is automatically tracked and crushed based on the tomographic image scanned by the ultrasonic probe 4.

According to the ultrasonic treatment device of this embodiment configured and operated in this manner, in addition to the effects of the ultrasonic treatment device of the first embodiment, the ultrasonic treatment device arranged in the center of the powerful ultrasonic generator 5 Since the probe 3 is not required, the structure can be simplified and the size can be reduced.

In FIG. 3, reference numerals 21 and 22 indicate missing echoes due to the stone 2 in the tomographic image of the ultrasound probe 3.4, respectively.

[Effects of the Invention] As explained above, according to the present invention, <1) By using an ultrasonic probe for exploration, the observation range can be widened, and the stone position before treatment can be easily captured. Therefore, the time and effort required to use a separate ultrasonic 71111 device as in the prior art is eliminated.

(2) Capturing and automatic tracking of stones enables efficient treatment, which shortens treatment time and reduces patient pain.

It is possible to provide an ultrasonic treatment device that exhibits remarkable effects such as the following.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of an ultrasonic treatment device according to a first embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a schematic configuration diagram of main parts of an ultrasonic treatment device according to a second embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 3 is a diagram showing echo omission in a tomographic image obtained by an ultrasound probe. 1... Human body 2... Stone 3... Ultrasonic probe 4... Exploration Ultrasonic probe 5...
...Powerful ultrasonic generator (ultrasonic wave generation means) 8...
...Probe moving device (probe moving means) 11...
...Position detection device (coordinate detection means) 13...
・Ultrasonic generator moving device (focal position moving means)

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] An ultrasonic treatment device that observes the location of an affected area such as a stone in the body using an ultrasonic observation device and treats it by concentrating shock waves generated by ultrasonic waves generated outside the body, which includes an ultrasonic transducer. , an ultrasonic wave generating means for generating a powerful shock wave for treatment; an ultrasonic probe provided in the ultrasonic generating means for detecting the location of a stone; an ultrasonic probe for detecting a stone position before treatment; a means for moving the ultrasonic probe around the ultrasonic generating means; and a fixed position. means for extracting a portion of constant echo intensity in an ultrasonic tomogram obtained every time and detecting its coordinates; and means for moving the focal position of the strong shock wave based on the coordinates of the echo intensity. An ultrasonic treatment device characterized by: