JPH048355A - Ultrasonic probe - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To avoid increasing of length and outside diameter of a hard part in a point end part of an ultrasonic probe so as to form the probe into small size and further to improve controllability of the probe by providing a feed/discharge port of a balloon inflating material by utilizing a space between the material and an element by which an ultrasonic vibrator is formed. CONSTITUTION:Balloon mounting grooves 7, 8 are formed, a groove for housing a balloon injection water pipe 9 so as to bury its point end, formed in a U-shape with one side open, is formed in a point end fixed part 4, and an end part of the housing groove is positioned in the vicinity of a separation part 10 to form a water filling port 11. The separation part 10 is buried with the vicinity of an outlet of the water filling port 11 left by an adhesive agent 12, in a condition that the point end, in U- shape with one side open, of the balloon water injection pipe 9 is inserted and fixed to the water filling port 11, by inserting the balloon water injection pipe 9 into the housing groove from a point end side of an ultrasonic probe. The water filling port 11 of the balloon water injection pipe 9 can be provided by utilizing the separation part 10, in which end faces of a dumbbell type ultrasonic vibrator are opposed, and increasing of a diameter in the point end part can be avoided with no necessity for providing a space for the balloon water injection pipe 9 in the point end of the ultrasonic probe.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Industrial Application Field] The present invention relates to an ultrasonic probe, and particularly to a structure for supplying a balloon fat material into a balloon provided at the tip of an insertion portion.

[Conventional technology]

An ultrasound probe is used to perform ultrasound diagnosis by inserting an insertion section into a body cavity, exciting an ultrasound transducer provided inside the distal end of the insertion section, and processing ultrasound echoes as signals. In this case, in order to keep the tip of the insertion tube in close contact with the body wall within the body cavity and to properly transmit and receive the ultrasound beam from the ultrasound transducer, the area near the tip of the insertion tube must be filled with degassed water, or the inside of the tube must be filled with ultrasonic water. Providing a balloon with a sonic transmission medium liquid or gas attached has been practiced. The former is called the degassed water filling method, and the latter is called the balloon method.

In the case of the balloon method, it is necessary to provide a supply port for supplying the ultrasonic transmission medium liquid or gas into the balloon. The problem is that the hard part at the tip becomes larger.

For example, FIG. 6 shows the manufacturing process of an electronic scanning ultrasonic probe. First, as shown in FIG. Place the alignment N on top of it.
44, an acoustic lens 45 is further mounted and fixed to form an array type ultrasonic transducer.

Next, as shown in Figure B, the array type ultrasonic transducer is fixed on the outer periphery of the cylindrical support member 46 while being bent.

In this case, the ends of the array-type ultrasonic transducer in the bending direction do not come into close contact with each other, and are fixed with the separation portion 53 formed. next,
As shown in FIG. 0, an FPC restraining ring 47 is fitted onto the flexible substrate 42 side of the array type ultrasonic transducer, and a tip fixing portion 48 is fixed to the other end side.

Next, a light guide (LG), image guide (IC), forceps channel, air/water supply channel, balloon water injection pipe, etc. are inserted into the through hole formed in the central axis of the structure constructed in this way. Insert the endoscope 49 (
Figure D). Note that the IC may be an optical fiber or an electronic scope such as a COD. Figure E shows the ultrasonic probe constructed in this manner, which is a direct-view electronic scanning type radial scan ultrasonic probe.

FIG. 7 shows an embodiment in which a balloon 5o is attached to the ultrasonic probe. To attach the balloon 50, the tip fixing part 48 and the FPC restraining ring 47 are attached.
This is done by forming a groove for attaching it to the plate. In order to supply the ultrasonic transmission medium liquid or gas into this balloon 50, an endoscope 4 is used.
This is done through the balloon water injection pipe 51 built into the balloon. As shown in Figure A, the balloon water injection pipe 51 is provided in a water injection groove 52 formed in the tip fixing part 48, and is used to inject ultrasonic transmission medium liquid or gas into the balloon 50. 54 is a flexible tube which is an outer tube. Figure B shows another embodiment of the balloon water injection pipe 51 and the water injection groove 52, in which the water injection port of the balloon water injection pipe 51 is located outside the array type ultrasonic transducer in the radial direction. It is.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

However, in the conventional example described above, the tip of the balloon water injection tube is provided within the tip fixing part, so there are problems such as the length of the hard part of the probe tip.
Since the probe is located on the outside in the radial direction of the array type ultrasonic transducer, there is a problem that the hard part at the tip of the probe becomes thick. Therefore, in addition to increasing the pain to the subject when inserting the insertion portion into the body cavity, the operator's operability of the ultrasound probe is reduced.

The present invention is proposed to solve the above-mentioned problems.
This ultrasonic probe has a water injection tube for a balloon, and the purpose is to provide an ultrasonic probe that is small and has excellent operability.

[Means and effects for solving the problems] In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides an ultrasonic transducer in the distal end of the insertion section, emits an ultrasonic beam to the subject via a balloon, and performs electronic scanning. In this ultrasonic probe, a space is formed in an element forming an ultrasonic transducer, and an outlet for feeding and discharging balloon inflation material into the balloon is provided in the space.

In this way, the space between the elements that form the ultrasonic transducer is used to provide an inlet and outlet for the balloon inflation material, making it possible to increase the length and outer diameter of the hard part at the tip of the ultrasonic probe. can be avoided.

〔Example〕

FIG. 1 shows a first embodiment of the present invention, which is an ultrasonic probe that performs electronic radial scanning. As shown in Figure A, the basic configuration of the array type ultrasonic transducer is the same as that of the conventional example. That is, a flexible substrate is connected to one end of a piezoelectric vibrator having a folded electrode using a conductive adhesive. Then, a damper material is fixed to one surface of the piezoelectric vibrator, and a matching layer and an acoustic lens 1 are fixed to the other surface using an epoxy adhesive. The array-type ultrasonic transducer thus formed is fixed to the cylindrical holding member 2 by bending and bonding, and the FPC restraining ring 3 is fixed to the flexible substrate side of the array-type ultrasonic transducer, and the tip is fixed to the other end side. Fix part 4.

In this case, the ends of the bent array-type ultrasonic transducer in the bending direction are formed with spacing portions 10 so that they do not come into close contact with each other, and the end surfaces are opposed to each other. Further, a flexible flexible tube 5 is provided as an outer tube from the end of the FPC restraining ring 3 to the proximal side of the ultrasonic probe. The endoscope 6 is fitted and fixed into the through hole formed in the central axis of the structure constructed in this manner.

Figure B shows the balloon 13 attached.
Balloon mounting grooves 7.8 are formed in the circumferential direction on the outside of the tip fixing part 4 and the FPC restraining ring 3. Furthermore, the tip fixing part 4 includes a balloon water injection pipe 9 having a U-shaped tip.
A storage groove is formed in which the tip of the storage groove is buried, and the end of the storage groove is located near the separation part 10 and the water inlet 1
1. Then, as shown in Figure A, the balloon water injection tube 9 is inserted into the storage groove from the tip side of the ultrasonic probe, and the U-shaped tip of the balloon water injection tube 9 is inserted into the water injection port 11 and fixed. In this fixed state, as shown in Fig. B, the spaced apart portion 10 is filled with adhesive 12 except for the area near the outlet of the water inlet 11. In addition, A
The figure shows the state before filling with adhesive 12.

With this configuration, the water inlet 11 of the balloon water inlet pipe 9 can be provided using the separation part 10 where the end surfaces of the array type ultrasonic transducer face each other, and the There is no need to provide a space for the balloon water injection pipe 9, and it is possible to avoid increasing the diameter of the tip.

FIG. 2 shows a second embodiment of the present invention, in which the tip of the balloon water injection tube 9 is L-shaped, and a cutout groove 14 is formed on the side of the tip fixing part 4 to allow the inside of the ultrasonic probe. The structure is such that it is fixed so that it is buried in the ground. For other configurations,
This is the same as the first embodiment. In this embodiment, the water injection direction of the balloon water injection pipe 9 is perpendicular to the central axis of the ultrasonic probe.

With this configuration, the balloon water injection pipe 9 can be provided in the tip fixing part 4 without being located, so the thickness of the tip fixing part 4 can be made thin.

FIG. 3 shows a third embodiment of the present invention, in which an injection channel 15 is formed along a through hole in a thick part of a holding member for fixing an array type ultrasonic transducer. An inlet is formed in one end face of the support member 2 shown in Figure A, and an outlet is formed in the outer circumferential face near the other end face. Then, as shown in Figure B, short pipes 16 and 17 are provided in each opening. When bending and fixing the array type ultrasonic transducer to the support member 2 configured as described above, the pins are positioned in the separation part 10 and its extension direction with reference to the vibrator 16, 17. A series of balloon water injection tubes can be constructed by connecting a balloon water injection tube (not shown) to the bottle 16 provided at the entrance. The other configurations are the same as those in the first embodiment.

With this configuration, the ultrasonic probe can be easily assembled.

FIG. 4 shows a fourth embodiment of the present invention, and in A-D, a water injection pipe for a balloon is provided in a space formed by cutting out a part of an ultrasonic transducer. In other words,
Figure A shows a linear scanning type ultrasonic probe 18, in which several elements of the linear type ultrasonic transducer 2o are cut out to form a space, and a water injection pipe 9 for a balloon is provided. 19 is an observation window. FIG. B shows an application to the convex ultrasonic probe 18. FIG. 0 shows an application to another convex ultrasonic probe 18. FIG. D shows an example applied to a sector-scanning ultrasonic probe 18.

By the way, when performing ultrasonic diagnosis using the above-mentioned ultrasonic probe, after the insertion part has been inserted to the required location in the body cavity, the ultrasonic transmission medium liquid is fed into the balloon water injection pipe from the proximal side. The supplied ultrasonic propagation liquid is injected into the balloon from the water inlet. In this case, if the injection is performed rapidly, pressure will be rapidly applied to the part of the body cavity in contact with the balloon, which may also damage the normal blood vessel wall in contact with the occluded part or the like.

Therefore, as shown in FIG. 5A, the injection pressure control means 35 provided on the proximal side of the ultrasonic probe 21 is used to control the injection pressure. In other words, there is a monitor 22 and a light source 23 on the hand side.
, a laser device 24, an ultrasound imaging system 25 for imaging signals from the ultrasound transducer, and a syringe 26 for supplying an ultrasound transmission medium liquid or gas into the balloon 27. The ultrasonic probe 21 is provided with an lG 28 connected to the monitor 22, an LG 29 connected to the light source 23, and a laser guide 3o connected to the laser device 24, as shown in Figures B and 0 (A-A sectional view). Along with ultrasonic transducer 3
A signal cable 32 is connected to the syringe 1 and an injection tube 33 is connected to the syringe 26. The balloon 27 is fixed to the tip of the ultrasound probe 21 by a restraining ring 34.

With this configuration, the signal sent via the IG 28 is displayed on the monitor 22 as information inside the body cavity. While checking the situation, the ultrasonic transmission medium liquid or gas is supplied into the balloon 27 via the syringe 26 and the injection tube. In this case, the ultrasonic transducer 31 is excited to obtain information on the blood vessel wall, etc., which is being pressurized by the balloon 27, and the wall pressure is monitored by the monitor 22, and when the required value is reached, the injection is stopped. Such control is performed via an injection pressure control means 35 connected to the injector 26 and the ultrasound imaging system 25. Then, a treatment such as irradiating a laser beam from the laser guide 30 to cut open a narrowed or occluded part 36 in the body cavity as shown in Fig. D is performed. In this way, it is possible to remove an occluded portion in the body cavity while preventing damage to the subject due to rapid inflation of the balloon, and ultrasonic diagnosis can be appropriately performed.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As described above, according to the present invention, the space formed in the ultrasonic transducer can be used to provide a supply port for supplying the ultrasonic propagation liquid to inflate the balloon. It is possible to prevent the length of the hard part and the diameter of the tip from increasing. Furthermore, deterioration of ultrasonic tomographic images can be suppressed as much as possible. Therefore, it is possible to provide an ultrasonic probe that does not cause pain to the subject and has good operability.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 shows a first embodiment of the invention, Fig. 2 shows a second embodiment of the invention, and Fig. 3 shows a third embodiment of the invention. , FIG. 4 shows a fourth embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 5 shows a control method for implementing the present invention, and FIGS. 6 and 7 show a conventional example. This is what is shown. 1...Acoustic lens 2...Holding member 4...Tip fixing part 6...Endoscope 9...Balloon water injection pipe 10...Separation part 11...Water injection port 12... Adhesive material 13...Balloon

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. In an ultrasonic probe that has an ultrasonic transducer installed inside the tip of the insertion section, emits an ultrasonic beam to the subject via a balloon, and performs electronic scanning, a space is created within the element that forms the ultrasonic transducer. An ultrasonic probe characterized in that the space is provided with an outlet for feeding and discharging balloon inflation material into the balloon.