TWI588485B - Measuring device for thermal physical parameter and needle - Google Patents

Description

Thermal physical parameter measuring device and needle body

The present invention relates to a measurement technique, and more particularly to a thermophysical parameter measurement device and a needle.

Cancer (also known as cancer) is a major disease common to humans, and it ranks among the top three in terms of statistical death factors in many countries. It can be seen that cancer treatment is urgently needed in various countries, and various medical devices for cancer-related treatment are also important research fields at present.

On the other hand, thermal therapy for tumors is one of the current cancer treatment technologies. For example, radio frequency ablation (RFA) and microwave ablation (MWA) in magnetocaloric tumor cauterization. These techniques have been applied to topical cancer treatment, but considering the cost of treatment and application limitations, most patients are difficult to adopt.

With the rapid development of heat treatment surgery, it has become one of the radical methods for the treatment of tissue hyperplasia, benign tumors and malignant tumors. In order to obtain excellent clinical results, preoperative planning, intraoperative precise positioning and postoperative evaluation are indispensable key steps in the treatment of thermal therapy. However, preoperative planning is the first step in the entire treatment process. The purpose is to ensure a safe treatment range for the heat treatment operation under the premise of low complications, thereby improving the treatment quality of the patient. The pros and cons of treatment planning will directly affect the postoperative efficacy, and preoperative planning is the focus of improving the safety and accuracy of surgery. Therefore, the development of a thermal therapy surgical planning system is a very important issue for thermal therapy surgery. However, clinically, it is often difficult to accurately grasp the physical properties of the tissue and the operation time of the operation, so that the diameter of the high-temperature region of the energy-type surgical instrument is too large, the tissue is inadvertently removed, or the diameter of the high-temperature region is too small to be safe and tumor-free. Edges and the like occur. Therefore, it is necessary to improve the defects of the above-mentioned thermotherapy technology and grasp the rise of the tissue temperature.

The purpose of tumor thermotherapy is to allow the effective thermal field to cover the tumor in three dimensions to achieve complete coagulative necrosis of the tumor tissue. It can be seen that understanding the thermophysical properties of thermal therapy technology is crucial for surgical planning. However, since each human organ or tissue reacts differently to heat, the measurement of thermophysical parameters of biological tissues is one of the most difficult and challenging topics in the field of biothermal conduction.

The invention provides a thermal physical parameter measuring device and a needle body, which can measure the thermophysical parameters through temperature measurement in two different environments.

The measuring device for thermophysical parameters of the present invention includes a needle body, a heating module, a temperature sensor, and a processor. The needle body is used to obtain biological tissue. The heating module is coupled to the needle body and is used to sense the temperature of the biological tissue. The temperature sensor is disposed on the needle body and is used to sense the temperature of the biological tissue. The processor is coupled to the temperature sensor and the heating module. When the biological tissue is in the first environment, the heating module heats the biological tissue and the temperature sensor measures the first temperature information of the biological tissue. When the biological tissue is in the second environment, the heating module heats the biological tissue and the at least one temperature sensor measures the second temperature information of the biological tissue, wherein the first environment is different from the second environment. The processor calculates a plurality of thermophysical parameters based on the first temperature information and the second temperature information.

In an embodiment of the invention, the first environment is in vivo and the second environment is in vitro.

In an embodiment of the invention, the heating module has a magnetic field generating device that magnetically generates heat to the biological tissue.

The needle body of the present invention includes a body, a tip portion, a cavity, and a cutting portion. The body surface has an opening. The tip portion is disposed at one end of the body. The cavity is disposed in the body and has an accommodating space for accommodating the biological tissue, and the accommodating space is in communication with the opening. The cutting portion is disposed on one side of the opening, and the cutting portion has a cutting edge for cutting biological tissue.

In an embodiment of the invention, the cutting portion forms a side wall of the cavity, and the cutting edge is an open side.

In an embodiment of the invention, the material of the body is a Ma Tian scattered iron-based stainless steel material.

In an embodiment of the invention, the needle body further includes at least one hollow structure disposed in the body for identifying and positioning the medical imaging device.

In an embodiment of the invention, the needle body further includes a movable shutter movably disposed on the body for opening or closing the opening.

In an embodiment of the invention, the needle body further includes a heating module coupled to the body and configured to heat the biological tissue.

Based on the above, the thermal physical parameter measuring device and the needle body according to the embodiment of the present invention, the measuring device is used for sampling and heating the biological tissue of the living part to be measured in the first environment and the second environment, and respectively The temperature of the biological tissue obtained in an environment and the second environment (for example, the first temperature information and the second temperature information) is measured. Then, the first temperature information and the second temperature information are used to derive the required thermophysical parameters.

The above described features and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following description.

The Pennes heat conduction equation is one of the methods for analyzing the heat conduction phenomenon and temperature distribution of biological tissues, and has thermophysical parameters such as heat transfer coefficient, heat capacity value, and tissue blood perfusion rate (or blood flow rate). Among them, temperature change is also one of the important causes of the Pennes heat conduction equation. Accordingly, embodiments of the present invention measure temperature of heated biological tissue in two environments (eg, in vivo and in vitro) to obtain temperature changes between the two environments, and thereby pass through Pennes. The heat conduction equation derives other thermophysical parameters. A plurality of embodiments in accordance with the spirit of the present invention are set forth below, and those applying the present embodiment can be appropriately adjusted according to their needs, and are not limited to the contents described in the following description.

1 is a block diagram showing the components of a measuring device in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. Referring to FIG. 1 , the measuring device 100 includes a needle body 110 , a heating module 120 , a temperature sensor 130 , and a processor 140 .

Fig. 2 is a partial schematic view showing the needle body. Referring to FIG. 2, the needle 210 may include at least, but not limited to, a body, a cavity 212, a tip portion 214, and a cutting portion 215. The surface of the body has an opening 211, and the diameter of the body is about 0.8-1.2 mm, but not limited thereto, it can be a medical grade metal (for example, silver, platinum, 306 stainless steel, 316 stainless steel, titanium or titanium alloy, etc. ), made of heat-resistant plastic or medical grade ceramics. The needle tip portion 214 is disposed at one end of the body and has a pointed portion adapted to puncture biological tissue. The cavity 212 is disposed in the body and has an accommodating space, and the accommodating space is in communication with the opening 211. The cutting portion 215 is disposed on one side of the opening 211, and the cutting portion 215 has a cutting edge 216 which is in the shape of a blade for cutting the biological tissue 55. In the embodiment, the cutting portion 215 forms a side wall of the cavity 212, and The cutting edge 216 is a side of the opening 211. Preferably, the cutting edge 216 is adjacent to the needle tip portion 214, that is, the distance between the cutting edge 216 and the needle tip portion 214 is smaller than the distance between the other side edges of the opening 211 and the needle tip portion 214. The needle body 210 further has a movable shutter 213, and the shutter 213 is used to open or close the opening 211. After the needle body 210 obtains the biological tissue 55 through the opening 211, the cavity 212 is used to accommodate the biological tissue 55. In addition, the needle 210 may include one or more hollow structures disposed on the body to facilitate identification and positioning of medical imaging devices such as ultrasound.

For example, FIGS. 3A-3C are schematic diagrams illustrating the acquisition of biological tissue 55 by needle 210 in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. Referring first to FIG. 3A, when the needle 210 penetrates the living body 50 through the needle tip portion 214 (in the direction R1) and enters the position where the biological tissue 55 is to be obtained, the needle body 210 is directed in the opposite direction to the needle tip portion 214 (for example, the direction R2). When moving, the cutting edge 216 of the cutting portion 215 can cut the biological tissue 55, and the biological tissue 55 separated by the cutting is filled into the accommodating space of the cavity 212. Referring to 3B and 3C, the flap 213 is movable and the opening 211 can be completely closed.

The heating module 120 may be based on an electric energy conversion heat energy technology to heat its heating unit (for example, a Nichrome wire, various types of electric resistance wires, a radiant heating unit, etc.), and connect the needle body 110 (for example, in FIG. 2 The heating module 220) is used to provide a fixed or variable heat source to heat the biological tissue 55 taken by the needle 110.

In another embodiment, the heating module 120 may be based on the electric energy to magnetic energy re-heating technology, and the magnetic body 55 is heated by the magnetic field generating device (not shown) to heat the biological tissue 55, and the needle body 110 can be It is selected to be a granulated stainless steel material (such as 420 stainless steel or 630 stainless steel) having a magnetizing effect.

The temperature sensor 130 may be a temperature sensor of a thermocouple, a thermistor, or the like, and is connected to the needle 110 and used to sense the temperature of the biological tissue 55. One or several temperature sensors 130 may be disposed in the needle body 110. For example, three temperature sensors 130 are provided in the needle body 210 of FIG. The temperature measurement distance from each temperature sensor 130 to heating module 120 will be recorded for use as a subsequent analysis.

It should be noted that, in the embodiment of the present invention, the installation position and the number of the temperature sensor 130 are not limited, and the embodiment of the present invention can be adjusted according to the design requirements. Further, the living body 50 can be determined depending on the part of the human body to be measured, and thus the living body 50 is, for example, an organ or a part of the human body, and the biological tissue 55 constitutes the living body 50. For example, when a doctor wants to perform a heat treatment operation on a cancer cell in a certain part or organ of a human body, since different human body organs or parts may have different thermophysical parameters, they will have different responses to temperature changes. Accordingly, the embodiment of the present invention can be used to puncture a specific part or an organ through the needle body 110 in the measuring device 100 to obtain the biological tissue 55 as needed.

The processor 140 is coupled to the temperature sensor 130 and the heating module 120. The processor 140 can be a central processing unit (CPU), a microprocessor (Microprocessor), a digital signal processor (DSP), a programmable controller, and an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC). ), System On Chip (SoC) or other similar components or a combination of the above. In the embodiment of the present invention, the processing unit 140 is configured to perform all operations of the measuring device 100.

It should be noted that the measuring device 100 may further include a storage unit (not shown) (for example, any type of fixed or removable random access memory (RAM), read-only memory (Read-Only) Memory; ROM), Flash Memory or the like or a combination of the above elements, the invention is not limited. The storage unit can be used to store the heating power intensity of the heating module 120, the temperature measurement distance between the heating module 120 and each temperature sensor 130, and the thermal physical parameters of the needle body 110.

In some embodiments, the measuring device 100 may further include a display unit, which may be a liquid crystal display (LCD), a thin film transistor liquid crystal display (TFT-LCD), or a light emitting diode display (Light). -Emitting Diode; LED), Organic LIGHT-Emitting Diode (OLED) and other displays, and used to display thermal physical parameters.

4 is a schematic diagram illustrating a measuring device. Referring to FIG. 4, the measuring device 400 includes a main body B and a needle body 410. The main body B can be configured with the processor 140 and the display unit 450 as shown in FIG. The needle body 410 has the same or similar configuration of the needle body 210 in FIG. 2, and the heating module 120 and the temperature sensor 130 of FIG. 1 can be disposed therein. It should be noted that FIG. 4 is only used for example description, and the embodiment of the present invention does not limit the appearance, shape and size of the measuring device.

In order to facilitate the understanding of the operation flow of the embodiment of the present invention, the control method of the measuring apparatus 100 in the embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail below by way of various embodiments. FIG. 5 is a flow chart illustrating a method of measuring thermal physical parameters in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. Referring to FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 simultaneously, the method of the present embodiment is applicable to the measuring device 100 of FIG. Hereinafter, the method described in the embodiments of the present invention will be described with various components and modules in the measuring device 100. The various processes of the method can be adjusted accordingly according to the implementation situation, and are not limited thereto.

In step S510, when the biological tissue 55 is in the first environment, the heating module 120 in the measuring device 100 heats the biological tissue 55, and the temperature sensor 130 measures the first temperature information of the biological tissue 55. In this embodiment, the first environment is within the living body 50. Specifically, the measuring device 100 pierces the living body 50 through the needle body 110 to place the needle body 110 in the living body 50, and takes the biological tissue 55 into the needle body 110 based on the operation of acquiring the biological tissue 55 as shown in FIGS. 3A-3C. The cavity. Next, in a situation where the acquired biological tissue 55 is still in the living body 50, the processor 140 heats the biological tissue 55 through the heating module 120, and records the heating time for performing the heating operation. In addition, the processor 140 passes the temperature sensors 130 and, when one or more specific heating times (eg, 1, 2, 10 seconds, etc.) arrive, performs temperature measurement on the biological tissue 55 to obtain the first temperature information. (for example, temperature values of different heating times and temperature changes between heating times, etc.), and the first temperature information is recorded in the storage unit.

In step S520, when the biological tissue 55 is in the second environment, the heating module 120 in the measuring device 100 heats the biological tissue 55, and the temperature sensor 130 measures the second temperature information of the biological tissue 55. In this embodiment, the second environment is outside the living body 50. Specifically, after the first temperature information is obtained, the needle body 110 can pull out the living body 50 and leave the needle body 110 outside the living body 50. Next, in a situation where the acquired biological tissue 55 is outside the living body 50, the processor 140 again heats the biological tissue 55 through the heating module 120, and records the heating time for performing the heating operation. In addition, the processor 140 passes through the temperature sensors 130 again and, when one or more specific heating times (eg, 1, 2, 10 seconds, etc.) arrive, performs temperature measurement on the biological tissue 55 to obtain the second temperature. Information (for example, temperature values for different heating times and temperature changes between heating times, etc.), and the second temperature information is recorded in the storage unit.

It should be noted that the present invention does not limit the types of the first environment and the second environment, and various situations in which the biological tissue 55 obtained by the measuring device 100 is in two different environments can be applied.

In step S530, the processor 140 calculates a plurality of thermophysical parameters according to the first temperature information and the second temperature information. In this embodiment, the processor 140 calculates a part of the thermophysical parameters according to the second temperature information through the biomedical heat conduction equation in the steady state and the biomedical heat conduction equation in the transient state, and according to the first temperature information and the calculated portion. These thermophysical parameters are calculated for all of these thermophysical parameters through the complete biomedical heat transfer equation. The biomedical heat conduction equation is the Pennes heat conduction equation.

Specifically, the Pennes heat conduction equation is as shown in the following formula (1): Where ρ and C are the tissue density and the tissue heat capacity value, respectively. , The blood density and blood heat capacity are respectively, k is the tissue heat transfer coefficient, ω _b is the tissue blood perfusion rate (blood flow), and Q _m and Q are the heat of the tissue metabolism and the external heat source, respectively. It is the heat that is taken away by the blood.

First, suppose the heat taken away by the blood And the metabolic heat Q _m is 0, and the processor 140 calculates a part of the thermophysical parameter (ie, the tissue heat transfer coefficient k ) according to the second temperature information through the biomedical heat conduction equation in the steady state. The Penness heat conduction equation at steady state is as shown in the following formula (2):

The processor 140 can calculate the external heating amount Q (ie, the heat of the external heating source) in the biomedical heat conduction equation according to the temperature measurement distance and the heating time. Next, the processor 140 brings the external heating amount Q and the second temperature information into the formula (2) to calculate the tissue heat transfer coefficient k .

Next, the processor 140 calculates the tissue heat capacity value C according to the second heat temperature coefficient and the heat transfer coefficient k through the transient medical heat conduction equation. The Penness heat conduction equation under transient conditions is as shown in the following formula (3):

The second temperature information is substituted into the temperature value T and the known tissue density ρ, the tissue heat transfer coefficient k, and the external heating amount Q by the transient Pennes heat conduction equation to obtain the tissue heat capacity value C.

Then, the processor 140 introduces the first temperature information, the second temperature information, and the obtained tissue heat transfer coefficient k and the tissue heat capacity value C and the known parameters into the complete Penness heat conduction equation of the above formula (1), and The thermophysical parameters such as the blood perfusion rate ω _b , the tissue metabolism heat Q _m , and the heat effects caused by the blood were obtained.

In other words, in the present embodiment, the measuring device 100 for thermal physical parameters is characterized by a temperature difference between the inside and outside of the living body 50 by the biological tissue 55, based on the first temperature information and the second temperature information inside and outside the living body 50, known. The parameters such as heat, heat source and temperature measurement distance and heating time are brought into the steady state, transient and complete Pennes heat conduction equation to calculate the tissue heat transfer coefficient k, tissue heat capacity value C, tissue blood perfusion rate ω _b and Organize the relevant thermophysical parameters such as metabolic heat Q _m .

In an embodiment, the processor 140 can display the first temperature information and the second temperature information and/or the calculated plurality of thermophysical parameter results through the display unit 450 in FIG. 4 . In other embodiments, the measuring device 100 may further include a wireless/wireless communication module to transmit the measured first temperature information and the second temperature information and the thermophysical parameters to another by wireless/wireless manner. Computer device, host, server, etc.

In order to allow those skilled in the art to understand the operational flow of the present invention, a contextual description is provided below. 6 is a flow chart illustrating a method of measuring thermal physical parameters in accordance with another embodiment of the present invention. Referring to FIG. 1 and FIG. 6 simultaneously, the thermal physical parameter measurement method of the present embodiment is applicable to at least the measurement device 100 of FIG. First, the needle body 110 of the measuring device 100 is placed in the living body 50 to obtain the biological tissue 55 to be measured (step S610). Next, heating is performed by the heating module 120 of the measuring device 100 to heat the biological tissue 55 (step S620). The processor 140 may measure the first temperature information (for example, the temperature change in the living body 50) of the biological tissue 55 for in vivo analysis through the temperature sensor 130 (step S630), and store the first temperature information (step S640). Next, for the in vitro analysis (step S650), the needle body 110 of the measuring device 100 is taken out of the living body 50. And, the processor 140 repeatedly performs step S620 to heat the biological tissue 55 again. Next, the processor 140 repeatedly performs step S630 to measure the second temperature information (eg, temperature change outside the living body 50) of the biological tissue 55 for in vitro analysis using the temperature sensor 130. In addition, in this step S630, the heat source heat of the built-in known heating module 120 and the distance between the heat source and the temperature sensor 130 may be provided, or the heat source heat of the heating module 120 may also be obtained by measurement. Then, the processor 140 calculates the tissue heat transfer coefficient k according to the first temperature information stored in the previous measurement, the second temperature information, and the built-in known heat, the relative distance between the heat source and the measurement position, and the heating time, and the Penness heat conduction equation. Related thermal physical parameters such as tissue heat capacity value C , tissue blood perfusion rate ω _b, and tissue metabolism heat Q _m . In step S660, the processor 140 displays the results of the measured plurality of thermophysical parameters (tissue heat capacity value C , tissue heat transfer coefficient k , blood perfusion rate, etc.) through the display unit.

It should be noted that the steps S610, S620, S630, and S640 in the step flow are the in vivo analysis flow, and the steps S650, S620, S630, and S640 in the step flow are the in vitro analysis flow. In this embodiment, the in vivo analysis process and the in vitro analysis process may also be repeated execution loops, and the number of executions may be one or more times, and the invention is not limited. The in vivo analysis process or the in vitro analysis process of this embodiment can set the loop to perform multiple times to obtain multiple sets of measurement results and calculate multiple sets of thermophysical parameters.

In addition, the related technical features and applications of the present embodiment for deriving and calculating the Pennes heat conduction equation to obtain the thermophysical parameters can be sufficiently taught, suggested, and implemented by the description of the embodiment of FIG. 1 above, and thus will not be described again.

In summary, the embodiments of the present invention provide a method for measuring thermal physical parameters and a measuring device thereof, wherein the measuring device has a needle body, a heating module, a temperature sensor, and a processor to obtain a biological tissue to be measured through the needle body. The obtained biological tissue is heated by a heating module. Next, a temperature sensor is used to measure different temperature information of the biological tissue in different environments (for example, within a specific living part or outside a specific living part), thereby calculating a plurality of biological tissues obtained through the Pennes heat conduction equation. Thermal physical parameters. Thereby, the embodiment of the present invention can quickly and conveniently provide reference information of the thermal reaction that this living part may have for thermal therapy surgery.

Although the present invention has been disclosed in the above embodiments, it is not intended to limit the present invention, and any one of ordinary skill in the art can make some changes and refinements without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention. The scope of the invention is defined by the scope of the appended claims.

100, 400: measuring device 110, 210, 410: needle 120, 220: heating module 130: temperature sensor 140: processor 50: living body 55: biological tissue 211: opening 212: cavity 213: blocking piece 214 : Needle portion 215: Cutting portion 216: Cutting edge 450: Display B: Main body S510, S520, S530, S610, S620, S630, S640, S650, S660: Step

1 is a block diagram showing the components of a measuring device in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. Fig. 2 is a partial schematic view showing the needle body. 3A-3C are schematic views illustrating the acquisition of biological tissue by a needle according to an embodiment of the invention. 4 is a schematic diagram illustrating a measuring device. FIG. 5 is a flow chart illustrating a method of measuring thermal physical parameters in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. 6 is a flow chart illustrating a method of measuring thermal physical parameters in accordance with another embodiment of the present invention.

100: Measuring device 110: Needle 120: Heating module 130: Temperature sensor 140: Processor 50: Living body 55: Biological tissue

Claims (8)

A measuring device for thermophysical parameters, comprising: a needle body for acquiring a biological tissue; a heating module connecting the needle body for heating the biological tissue; at least one temperature sensor disposed on the needle body a temperature sensor for sensing the temperature of the biological tissue; and a processor coupled to the at least one temperature sensor and the heating module, wherein the heating module heats the biological tissue when the biological tissue is in a first environment Biological tissue and the at least one temperature sensor measures a first temperature information of the biological tissue, and when the biological tissue is in a second environment, the heating module heats the biological tissue and the at least one temperature sensor measures a second temperature information of the biological tissue, wherein the first environment is different from the second environment, and the processor calculates a plurality of thermophysical parameters according to the first temperature information and the second temperature information. The measuring device of claim 1, wherein the first environment is a living body and the second environment is the living body. The measuring device of claim 1, wherein the heating module has a magnetic field generating device that causes the needle body to magnetically generate heat to heat the biological tissue. The measuring device of claim 1, wherein the needle body comprises: a body having an opening on a surface thereof; and a needle tip portion disposed at one end of the body; a cavity disposed in the body and having an accommodating space for accommodating the biological tissue, the accommodating space being in communication with the opening; and a cutting portion disposed on one side of the opening, the cutting portion having a blade The mouth is used to cut the biological tissue. The measuring device of claim 4, wherein the cutting portion forms a side wall of the cavity and the cutting edge is a side of the opening. The measuring device of claim 4, wherein the material of the body is a granulated stainless steel material. The measuring device of claim 4, wherein the needle body further comprises: at least one hollow structure disposed in the body for identifying and positioning the medical imaging device. The measuring device of claim 4, wherein the needle body further comprises: a movable blocking piece movably disposed on the body for opening or closing the opening.