WO2018106206A1

WO2018106206A1 - Movable x-ray apparatus for computer tomosynthesis

Info

Publication number: WO2018106206A1
Application number: PCT/UA2017/000006
Authority: WO
Inventors: Sergii MIROSHNYCHENKO; Andrii NEVGASYMYI
Original assignee: Miroshnychenko Sergii; Nevgasymyi Andrii
Priority date: 2016-12-06
Filing date: 2017-01-27
Publication date: 2018-06-14
Also published as: UA115853U

Abstract

Movable X-ray apparatus for computer tomosynthesis comprising a supporting rectangular framework having rigidly connected front and rear frames, that has equipped inside with horizontal guide members, a carriage translatably supported by said members and a sited onto said carriage rotary holder of a controllable X-ray emitter. The carriage has a controllable drive of reciprocating movement and the rotary holder has a controllable drive of swinging movement. A lower part of the framework front frame has equipped with a bracket, on which has placed a digital X-ray receiver. Said drives, X-ray emitter and X-ray receiver are connected to at least one self-contained power supply. A PC provides control over all said X-ray units and said drives. This PC has connected to the X- ray emitter driving point through wireless channel, and with a driving point and a data output of said X-ray receiver through a bidirectional cable.

Description

MOVABLE X-RAY APPARATUS

FOR COMPUTER TOMOSYNTHESIS

Field of the Invention

This invention relates to the structure of movable X-ray apparatuses for computer tomosynthesis, which are meant preferably for diagnostics of traumatic injuries and diseases of legs of sports horses and bovine animals.

Background Art

Sports horses and pedigree stocks (especially begetters) of bovine animals have appreciated value. Thus owners of such animals are vitally interested in timely diagnostics of their injuries and diseases, which fall on legs up to 80%. Injuries of sports horses' legs occur especially during contests and trainings.

Up to date such diagnostics is carrying out using traditional radiographs adapted to veterinary needs. However even several X-ray photographs made from a few directions are not enough informative in comparison with series of 2-D (and all the more 3-D) images of slices that can be obtained by computer tomosynthesis. Apparatuses for this purpose - move an X-ray emitter relative to a patient's body (or such patient's body relative to said emitter) along predetermined trajectory,

transmit X radiation through each examined slice of the patient's body in prescribed position on predetermined trajectory,

receive X radiation transmitted through each examined slice,

generate serially digital X-ray pictures of such slices, and

synthesize tomograms on the basis of these digital X-ray pictures.

Principles of software development for tomosynthesis are now well-known, and software of this kind is quite often obtainable at the world market (see, for example, US 2008/0219567 A1 ).

Programming control of mechanisms useful in X-ray apparatuses for computer tomosynthesis is no difficult too.

And, finally, now variety of simple, light and low-price multisensor digital X-ray receivers [see patents on the basis of WO 98/1 1722 and WO 2006/049589; US 6002743; US 6370225; RU 105553 U and many others] is publicly available. Each such receiver has serially arranged a flat X-ray-to-optical converter and a set of such optoelectronic converters having partly overlapping visual fields, which generate a great number of fragmentary analogous video signals. These converters are connected to an ADC-unit and further to a data processing unit that forms output integral digital video signals corresponding to discrete roentgenological pictures.

Aforesaid and other practically inertialess digital receivers are widespread now as parts of various X-ray apparatuses for computer tomosynthesis, which can be stationary or movable depending on their purpose, overall dimensions and mass. US 6,574,296 discloses typical sample of a stationary computer tomograph connected to an outside network. It comprises of - an usually flat roentgenoparent table meant for placement of an examined subject (i.e. a human or a medium-sized animal such as a dog);

a support of X-ray units in the form of a ring bearing, which encompasses said table and on which a controllable X-ray emitter equipped with a collimator shaping pyramidal X- ray beam and an X-ray receiver on the basis of at least one spiral line of CCD-detectors have oppositely fixed;

a drive of continuous rotation of said ring bearing around said table during examination;

a reversible drive of continuous linear movement of said table along symmetry axis of said ring bearing during examination;

an optical device meant for recording of roentgenological pictures that fixed usually onto said ring bearing and can have an automatic focusing device, and

a system generating roentgenological pictures for following tomosynthesis.

It is clear that rotation of the ring bearing and synchronous linear movement of the table along geometrical axis of said ring bearing provide spiral motion of X-ray beam relative to any examined subject's body.

Now such tomographs are known, in which diameter of the ring bearing opening is equal 78 cm and length of said spiral line of CCD-detectors comes up to 100 cm that yields diameter of tomography area up to 60 cm, and which have up to 64 and more of such lines. This allows synthesize great number of tomograms during one session (see RAD BOOK 2015. The Radiology Guide to Technology and Information in Europe, section "Computer Tomography", pp.9-12, especially p.12).

These tomographs provide examination of corpulent people, and recently they use even for clinical diagnostics of animals' injuries and diseases. So, the Internet gives many illustrations of tomographic examination of big dogs. Moreover, the Internet gives photos of tomographs having such wide table, which located perpendicularly to the said rotary ring bearing geometrical axis. This table allows laying a whole horse and placing its legs within the ring bearing opening for examination.

Unfortunately, akinesia of any (especially gross) animal during long examination at these apparatuses can be ensured only by narcotization, which worsens always functional state of their organisms. Sometimes such worsening can be (ordinary with sports horses) nonreversible that forces their early culling.

Moreover, above-described X-ray tomographs are massive, cumbersome, difficult-to- make and to-use. Therefore, they can be used only in clinics.

At present such movable X-ray tomographs have known, which can deliver to on-site using suitable cargo transport and no require narcotization of animals before examination. So, Web-site <http://equine4ddi.com> discloses a robotized X-ray tomograph comprising - a pedestal, which must be rigidly fixed onto an external base before starting, a platform placed onto said pedestal and equipped with a controllable drive of its rotation around vertical axis;

a boom located on said platform and equipped with a controllable drive of its rotation around horizontal axis;

a controllable rotary support located on the boom distal end;

a controllable X-ray emitter and a digital X-ray receiver that have kinematically connected with said support and equipped by own adjusting movement drives, which must provide permanently opposite position of theirs during each diagnostic session;

a power module of said drives, of said X-ray emitter, and of said X-ray receiver;

a control unit of said drives and said X-ray emitter;

a data-processing unit connected to the said X-ray receiver output, and

cables for connection of said units.

Such apparatus allows efficient examining any body's part of any big animal. However, it is very massive, large-dimensioned and difficult-to-make and to-use. Therefore, it cannot be quickly delivered and deployed in operating position in places, where traumatic injuries of legs of sports horses or bovine animals occur as often as not, i.e. in hippodromes, training areas and pastures (especially at mountain terrains), and also cannot be quickly prepared for the purpose of evacuation.

A problem of quick diagnostics of traumatic injuries of animals' legs in cases of veterinary emergency can be solved only by development and implementation of movable small-sized X-ray apparatuses for computer tomosynthesis.

To day many relatively small-sized apparatuses of this kind have known. They, as a rule, are so-called 'cone-beam computer tomographs' (in abbreviated form CBCT). For instance,

US 20130243151 A1 discloses a small-sized movable CBCT meant preferably for cranium examination (especially for diagnostics of human's craniocerebral traumas),

US 7224769 discloses a small-sized movable CBCT meant preferably for examination of human's dentitions;

US 9420977 discloses a small-sized movable CBCT having a rotary framework that supports oppositely positioned an X-ray emitter and a digital X-ray receiver. Said framework is dismountable. In inventor's judgment, this feature allows easy setting-up of said tomograph and also easy return of it into transport position; and

Web-site <http;//live.russia.tv/index/index/channel_id/3> discloses a small-sized movable CBCT Planmed Verity® meant preferably for examination of human's legs.

Above-described CBCTs are suitable for conveyance using cargo transport and can be used, in principle, for examination of legs of horses, bulls and other big animals immediately at stud farms and ranches. Unfortunately, all these apparatuses have a non-separable annular housing, in which has placed a rotary support of oppositely arranged an X-ray emitter and digital X-ray receiver. This hinders diagnostic manipulations because it is difficult (and sometimes impossible) to enforce some animal to raise injured or sick leg and to insert it into round aperture of said ring bearing.

US 2010/0278300 A1 discloses relatively compact and movable cone-beam X-ray apparatus for computer tomosynthesis, which is the closest in essence to a proposed below apparatus. This known apparatus has meant originally for examination of human legs or arms but it is also suitable for examination of animals' legs. It comprises of - a supporting assembly in the form of two parallel uprights;

an outer annular carrier of a controllable X-ray emitter and inner annular carrier of a digital X-ray receiver, at that these carriers have arranged between said uprights with radial clearance and each such carrier has a vertical straight-through passageway;

controllable drives of swinging movement of both said carriers around common vertical geometrical axis (and around an examined extremity in operative position);

a synchronizer of said drives in order to ensure opposite disposition of said X-ray emitter and said X-ray receiver during each diagnostic session;

a controllable drive of synchronous vertical adjusting movement of said X-ray emitter and X-ray receiver along an examined extremity;

a power module of all said drives, of said X-ray emitter, and of said X-ray receiver from an external network;

a control unit of said drives and said X-ray emitter;

a data-processing unit connected to the said X-ray receiver data output; and cables for interconnection of said units.

Initially the vertical passageways of both said annular carriers have located identically that allows easy inserting any extremities (including animals' legs) into examination area.

Nevertheless this apparatus is rather massive and voluminous that hampers its transposition and, accordingly, excludes employment of it in cases of veterinary emergency in places, where traumatic injuries of animals' legs occur as often as not.

Summary of the Invention

The invention is based on the problem - by way of structure improvement - to create such compact simply-to-make and simply-to-use a movable X-ray apparatus for computer tomosynthesis, which allows diagnosing traumatic injuries of legs of big animals in cases of veterinary emergency.

This problem has solved in that in a movable X-ray apparatus for computer tomosynthesis comprising - a supporting assembly,

a controllable X-ray emitter that has connected kinematically with said supporting assembly at least in operative position and equipped with a drive for movement during each diagnostic session,

a digital X-ray receiver located in operative position contrariwise the X-ray emitter, at least one power supply,

a control unit,

a data processing unit connected to the X-ray receiver data output, and

means for interconnection of said units,

according to the invention

the supporting assembly shaped in the form of a rectangular framework having rigidly connected front and rear frames,

this framework has equipped inside with horizontal guide members, a carriage that translatably supported by said guide members, and a sited onto said carriage rotary holder of said X-ray emitter;

a lower part of said front frame of said framework has equipped at least in operative position with a bracket, to which said digital X-ray receiver has fixed in operative position, any power supply is self-contained,

the control unit and the data processing unit have realized together in the form of a personal computer (PC), which has connected to the said X-ray emitter driving point through wireless channel, and with a driving point and a data output of said X-ray receiver through a bidirectional cable.

Such apparatus is a light load and has outer dimensions correspond to a medium- sized suitcase. Thus it can place within a baggage compartment of any usual passenger car or on a beast of burden, and can be transferable at short distances even by hand. Self- contained power supplies are affordable and publicly available. And finally, animals' legs can easy place in a gap between the front frame of said framework and said X-ray receiver. Thereby the proposed apparatus can be efficiently used in cases of veterinary emergency in places, where traumatic injuries of animals' legs occur as often as not.

First additional feature consists in that said bracket has a hold-back deck. This facilitates location and retention of each animal leg into position necessary for examination.

Second additional feature consists in that said carriage has a controllable drive of reciprocating movement, said rotary holder has a controllable drive of swinging movement, and each such drive has based on a stepper motor and a toothed belt transmission. This allows high-precision regulation of speed and phase of linear displacement and rotational displacement of the X-ray emitter relative to the X-ray receiver.

Third additional feature consists in that said framework has a casing. This allows protecting parts of apparatus from accidental damages.

Fourth additional feature consists in that said framework has equipped with removable wheels and a handle. This facilitates conveyance of such apparatus by service personnel from a point of delivery to a job site.

Brief Description of Illustrations

The invention will now be explained by detailed description of proposed movable X-ray apparatus with references to the accompanying drawings, in which:

Fig.1 shows a movable X-ray apparatus for computer tomosynthesis in operative position (a pictorial projection from which a framework casing removed for convenience);

Fig.2 shows a kinematic scheme of a drives for reciprocal linear and rotating movement of an X-ray emitter (together with schematic symbols of units and details necessary for tomosynthesis);

Fig.3 shows a foreleg of a sports horse during examination (photo);

Fig.4 shows conveyance of the apparatus to a job site in field environment (photo).

Best Embodiments of the Invention

A movable X-ray apparatus for computer tomosynthesis comprises of (see Fig1 ): a supporting assembly shaped in the form of a rectangular framework composed of front 1 and rear 2 frames that have connected rigidly with crosscuts 3,

internal equipment of this framework including not designated especially horizontal guide members, a carriage 4 that translatably supported by said guide members, and a sited onto said carriage rotary holder 5 that must pivot during each diagnostic session;

an usually removable controllable X-ray emitter 6, which in operative (and, as a rule, in transport) position has fixed onto rotary holder 5 (this emitter 6 can operate either uninterruptedly or in pulse mode with pulse time preferably no more than 5 ms);

a removable or swing-type (horizontal in operative position) bracket 7, which can be equipped with a (usually removable) durable and rigid deck 8 as a hold-back of examined animals' legs;

a removable dynamic (i.e. capable to create extra long series of X-ray images during each diagnostic session) preferably multisensor digital X-ray receiver 9, which has vertically fixed in operative position on the bracket 7 end part, and which have the appearance of an individual container in transport position.

Fig.2 shows that the carriage 4 has a controllable drive of reciprocating movement and the rotary holder 5 has a controllable drive of swinging movement. These drives comprise of stepper motors 10 and 1 1 and toothed belt transmissions 12 and 13 that have shown for convenience only by dashed line.

Energy supply of said X-ray emitter 6, said X-ray receiver 9 and said stepper motors 10 and 1 1 can be provided using one common (or some individual) self-contained power source(s) 14 such as accumulator(s). It is clear for each person skilled in the art that said units 6, 9, 10 and 1 1 must be connected with said power source(s) 14 through suitable controlled switches (not designated especially here for convenience). Any modern personal computer (PC) 15 equipped with necessary software can serve as a means that provide control over above-mentioned switches, tomosynthesis, recording, storage and show of tomograms. This PC 15 must be connected to - the X-ray emitter 6 driving point through wireless (Bluetooth) channel, and

a driving point and a data output of said X-ray receiver 9 through a bidirectional cable

(e.g. Ethernet) having transmission capacity about 1 Gbit per sec.

These communication channels had shown on Fig.2 correspondingly by a broken arrow and symbolically specified antennas, and by straight bidirectional arrow.

Figs 3 and 4 show that aforesaid framework has a not designated especially casing made from thin sheets of metal (e.g. steel or aluminum alloy) or preferably opaque pure or composite polymeric material (e.g. polyvinylchloride, laminated Bakelite and others). Naturally, a front wall of such casing must be either removable or equipped with a window in order to pass X-ray beam.

Above-mentioned casing allows transforming the described apparatus into a shipping container that can run using a passenger car or a beast of burden. Further, easy conveyance of the apparatus for short haul can be provided, if it will equip by two (preferably removable) wheels and by a handle, as it shown on the Fig.4.

Traumatic injuries of legs of sports horses or cattle can be diagnosed using the described apparatus as follows.

Firstly, this apparatus must be brought into in-service state. Thereto (see Fig.1 ) a personnel - fastens the bracket 7 in horizontal position and lays on it the deck 8 (if this detail is not a part of said bracket 7);

arranges the X-ray receiver 9 onto the bracket 7 end part vertically,

connects this X-ray receiver 9 firstly to the common self-contained power source 14 or to an own accumulator (that showed symbolically on Fig.2 as rectangle at left lower part of image of said receiver 9) and then to the PC 15 by above-mentioned bidirectional cable (as it showed on Fig.2 too).

Further (see Fig.2) the personnel - fastens the X-ray emitter 6 onto the rotary holder 5 and connects of it to the said power source 14 (if this emitter 6 had been brought in a workplace separately), and

transfers the carriage 4 with the rotary holder 5 and the X-ray emitter 6 into an extreme (left or right) position;

necessarily, turns the rotary holder 5 so that a front face of said X-ray emitter 6 will be directing to the X-ray receiver 9 at some initial angle (usually in the range 30...40°).

Then the personnel places an animal leg onto the deck 8 as showed on Fig.3, and activates program of diagnostics installed in the PC 15. The stepper motor 10 moves the carriage 4 along above-mentioned horizontal guide members and the stepper motor 11 turns synchronously the rotary holder 5 so that the X-ray emitter 6 front face remains directed at the said X-ray receiver 9.

This X-ray receiver 9 generates on the own data output a series of such digital X-ray pictures of the examined leg slices, which have obtained under different angles. The PC 15 receives these pictures and transforms of theirs into tomograms.

Discretization of frames can be ensured at the X-ray receiver 9 data output immediately and/or or by pulse operation of the X-ray emitter 6.

Industrial applicability

Industrial applicability of the invention has provided because above-described movable X-ray apparatuses for computer tomosynthesis - can be serially produced on the basis of available materials and components, and can be widely and efficiently used in cases of veterinary emergency in places, where traumatic injuries of animals' legs occur as often as not.

Moreover, such apparatuses can be used for equipping of mobile military or emergency hospitals and outpatient medical rooms for examination of .human extremities.

Trials of pilot model of above-described apparatus having a continuously operating X- ray emitter 6 have revealed that duration of one diagnostic session is no long than four seconds and that such time period allows forming no less than 130 frames. This number is quite enough for efficient recognition of trauma mode and evaluation of severity of injury.

Claims

1. A movable X-ray apparatus for computer tomosynthesis comprising - a supporting assembly,

a control unit,

a data processing unit connected to the X-ray receiver data output, and

means for interconnection of said units,

characterized in that

2. The movable X-ray apparatus according to the claim 1 , characterized in that said bracket has a hold-back deck.

3. The movable X-ray apparatus according to the claim 1 , characterized in that said carriage has a controllable drive of reciprocating movement, said rotary holder has a controllable drive of swinging movement, and each such drive has based on a stepper motor and a toothed belt transmission.

4. The movable X-ray apparatus according to the claim 1 , characterized in that said framework has a casing.

5. Movable X-ray apparatus according to the claim 1 , characterized in that said framework has equipped with removable wheels and a handle.