JPH02144076A - Ultrasonic type drug discharge apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To control the discharge amount of a drug to a proper amount by appropriately monitoring the amount of the drug contained in a base material by mounting an ultrasonic vibrator, an ultrasonic medium containing the drug discharged by the vibration of the ultrasonic vibrator and a detection means for detecting the amount of the drug contained in the ultrasonic medium. CONSTITUTION:A transmission circuit 11 for transmitting a signal to an ultrasonic vibrator 2 and a receiving circuit 13 for receiving the signal from the ultrasonic vibrator 2 are provided to a control part 4. A detection means is constituted of the ultrasonic vibrator 2, the receiving circuit 13 and a signal processing circuit 14. A user mounts a base material 3 containing a drug to the surface in contact with the affected part of a living body of the ultrasonic vibrator 2 to fix the same to the affected part. Then, the intensity of ultrasonic output and the oscillation cycle of an ultrasonic wave are adjusted according to the state of the affected part and the kind of the drug by an input/output control circuit 18. At this time, the discharge amount of the drug becomes nuch when the intensity of the ultrasonic output is enhanced and, since the time interval discharging the drug becomes long when the oscillation cycle of the ultrasonic wave is made long, the drug is slowly discharged.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Industrial Application Field] The present invention relates to an ultrasonic drug release system capable of releasing an appropriate amount of drug by detecting the amount of drug contained in a medium.

[Prior Art] Methods for externally administering drugs to treat or prevent human diseases include oral and parenteral administration via injections, tablets, capsules, suppositories, etc., and ointments. ,
A method of administering by transdermal absorption, such as a patch, is used. Among these methods, drug administration via the skin is
Since the absorption of drugs through the skin is extremely small (the skin physiologically functions as a biological barrier against microorganisms, chemicals, radioactivity, heat, etc.), other than direct topical drugs, It was largely ignored. However, with recent advances in pharmaceutical technology, transdermal drugs have also been developed.

As a method for permeating this transdermal drug into the skin, there is a method using an ultrasonic transducer. In this method, a drug-containing base material (gel, paste, liquid, etc.) is placed on the surface of the ultrasound transducer that will come into contact with the affected area, and ultrasound is applied to the skin. This allows the drug to penetrate deep into the body to increase its effectiveness.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] However, with conventional devices, it is not possible to detect the amount of drug contained in the base material, and therefore it is difficult to control and release an appropriate amount of drug. could not.

[Object of the Invention] The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned circumstances. The purpose of the present invention is to provide a sonic drug release system.

[Means for Solving the Problems] The ultrasonic drug release system of the present invention includes an ultrasonic vibrator, an ultrasonic medium containing a drug released by vibration of the ultrasonic vibrator, and this ultrasonic medium. and a detection means for detecting the base of the drug contained in the drug.

[Effect 1 That is, in the ultrasonic drug release system of the present invention,
m of the drug contained in the ultrasound medium is detected.

[Embodiments] Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram showing the configuration of a first embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in this figure, the ultrasonic drug release system of the present invention includes a main body 1, an ultrasonic vibrator 2 made of a material such as PTZ, and fixedly attached to the main body 1.
It is composed of a base material 3 as an ultrasonic medium containing a drug, which is placed between the ultrasonic transducer 2 and the living body, and a control section 4 that controls the release of the drug. The main body 1 is fixed to the living body using an adhesive or the like.

Further, the east side of the ultrasonic transducer 2 (the side opposite to the surface that contacts the affected part of the living body) is an air layer.

Further, the base material 3 can be freely replaced whenever the drug has been released.

The control unit 4 is connected to the ultrasonic transducer 2 via a connection cord 5.

It is desirable that the acoustic impedance of the base material 3 is as close as possible to the impedance of a living body (approximately 1.5 x 106 kg/rd second). This is because the closer the acoustic impedance is, the easier the ultrasound can pass through the living body. However, depending on the drug, it is not necessarily necessary to match it to a living body. If it does not match the living body,
The effect can be achieved by increasing the intensity of the ultrasound waves.

By the way, the control unit 4 is provided with a transmitting circuit 11 that transmits a signal to the ultrasonic transducer 2, and a receiving circuit 13 that receives and receives signals from the ultrasonic transducer 2. The transmitting circuit 11 and the receiving circuit 13 process a pulse generation 'a12 that supplies a driving pulse signal to the ultrasonic transducer 2 and a signal from the ultrasonic transducer 2 that is not received by the receiving circuit 13, respectively. The signal processing circuit 14 is connected to the CPU 15 via a signal processing circuit 14. And this CPt
J15 includes a monitor 16 for displaying the drug spike, a notification device 17 that issues an alarm when the drug concentration has decreased below a certain limit, and an input that controls the release m and input amount of the drug. An output control circuit 18 is connected thereto.

Note that the ultrasonic transducer 2, the receiving circuit 13, and the signal processing circuit 14 constitute a detection means.

Next, the actual operation of this embodiment configured as described above will be described.

First, the user attaches the base material 3 containing the drug to the surface of the ultrasonic transducer 2 that comes into contact with the affected area of the living body, and fixes it to the affected area. Then, the input/output control circuit 18 adjusts the intensity of the ultrasonic output, the oscillation period of the ultrasonic waves, etc., depending on the condition of the affected area, the type of medicine, etc. At this time, increasing the intensity of the ultrasonic output will increase the amount of drug released n1, and increasing the oscillation cycle of the ultrasonic wave will lengthen the time interval at which the drug is released, so the drug will be released slowly. . The CPU 15 receives control signals from the input/output control circuit 18 and applies a drive signal to the pulse generator 12.

This pulse generator 12 generates pulses and transmits them to the transmitting circuit 1.
1, and this transmitting circuit 11 supplies a pulsed drive signal to the ultrasonic transducer 2. Then, ultrasonic waves are generated from the ultrasonic transducer 2 in accordance with this drive signal. This ultrasonic wave is transmitted through the base material 3 and transmitted to the affected area of the living body.

At this time, the drug contained in the base material 3 is outputted from the base material 3 by the action of ultrasonic waves (thermal action, vibration action, etc.).
Penetrates into the affected area of the body. The action of ultrasound promotes the penetration of the drug into the affected area, and the stimulating effect of this ultrasound and the effect of the drug work synergistically, making it more effective than when using the drug without ultrasound. The therapeutic effect will be improved.

Incidentally, it is better for the acoustic impedance of the base material to be close to the impedance of the living body, but the overall acoustic impedance varies depending on the drug contained therein. When ultrasound passes between media with different acoustic impedances, a portion of it is reflected. The amount of this reflection changes as the acoustic impedance changes. Therefore, if the drug contained in the base material 3 permeates into the affected area of the living body, the impedance of the base material will naturally change (the impedance is determined by the speed of sound and the density, and φ is the amount of the drug in the base material 3). If the density decreases, at least the density changes), so the reflection m of the ultrasonic waves at the contact surface between the affected part of the living body and the base material 3 changes. By detecting this amount of reflection, it is possible to know the change in impedance of the base material 3.

First, a reflected wave of an ultrasonic wave is detected by the ultrasonic transducer 2. Then, this detection signal is received by the receiving circuit 13, further processed by the signal processing circuit 14, and the CP
Send to U15. This CPU 15 processes the sent signal based on data given in advance to find a change in impedance. As a result, the amount of the drug contained in the base material 3 can be known, and by displaying the result on the monitor 16, the user can be informed of the amount of the drug. Furthermore, when the amount of the drug has decreased to a predetermined level, it may be detected and the alarm 17 may be used to notify the user.

Further, the entire ultrasonic drug release system can be controlled by the CPU 15 based on preset data. That is, by appropriately monitoring the drug content, the CPU 15 can perform control so that an ultrasonic irradiation output suitable for the condition is obtained.

Then, depending on the content of the drug, sometimes the irradiation is strong, sometimes the irradiation is weak, sometimes the irradiation time is long, and sometimes the irradiation time is short. can be controlled by

In this way, according to this embodiment, since the amount of the drug contained in the base material 3 is monitored, the user can know the amount of the drug contained in the base material 3.

Further, by setting an alarm to be issued as soon as the M of the drug decreases, the base material can be quickly replaced. Furthermore, by controlling the entire ultrasonic drug release system by the CPU, it is also possible to automatically release the appropriate drug.

FIG. 2 shows a second embodiment of the invention. In this second embodiment, the navy blue color of the drug contained in the base material 3, which was determined from the amount of ultrasound reflection in the first embodiment, is applied to the base material 3.
Detection is performed based on a change in the resonant frequency of the ultrasonic transducer 2 due to a change in the impedance of the ultrasonic transducer. For this reason, a phase detection circuit 21 and a phase processing circuit 22 are provided, respectively, in place of the receiving circuit 13 and signal processing circuit 14 in the first embodiment.

The resonant frequency of the ultrasonic sensor increases depending on the characteristics of the load applied to the transducer, that is, the impedance. Furthermore, when the resonant frequency of the vibrator changes, the voltage and current phases of the signals supplied to the camera change. Therefore, by knowing the changes in voltage and current, it is possible to
You will be able to know 1.

Therefore, in this second embodiment, the phase detection circuit 21
The signal (drive signal) supplied to the ultrasonic transducer 2 by
The phases of the voltage and current are detected, the phase range is evaluated by the phase processing circuit 22, and the result is sent to the CPU 15.

The structure and operation of other parts of this second embodiment are similar to those of the first embodiment, and the same effects as those of the first embodiment can be obtained, but in this second embodiment, only the transmission signal is used to complete the entire operation. can be controlled more easily than in the first embodiment of the second embodiment.

In each of the above embodiments, the material forming the ultrasonic transducer is P.
ZT, but the present invention is not limited to this, and PUDF
(Polyvinylidene fluoride) may be used.The 17th knife is hard because it is made by Relamitsu, but PUDF is soft, so by using it, the adhesion to the living body will be even better.

Further, in each of the above embodiments, the top surface of the ultrasonic transducer 2 was an air layer, but the present invention is not limited to this, and a damping layer (for example, tungsten powder mixed with epoxy resin) may be formed here. may be provided to lower the Q value of the ultrasonic transducer. By doing this, the driving frequency can be changed, so that ultrasonic waves can be used in an optimal state.

Further, in each of the above embodiments, the ultrasonic transducer 2 and the control unit 4 are connected by a connection cord, but the present invention is not limited to this, and a wireless circuit may be built inside the main body. It is also possible to create a configuration that does not use a connection cord. In that case, place the control unit in a pocket or the like and place only the main body on the affected area.

Further, as shown in FIG. 3(a), the main body 1, which has a built-in wireless circuit (not shown) and is provided with an antenna 27 connected to the wireless circuit, is fixed to an organ 28 in the living body,
A control unit 4 is installed outside the living body (), and a monitor 1 is connected to this control unit 4.
6, an alarm compensation 17, an input/output control switch 18, and an antenna 25.
Control can also be performed from With this configuration, a connection cord is not required, so this connection cord does not impair operability, and there is no fear of infection.

In addition, as a method for fixing the main body 1 to the organ 28, as shown in FIG. 3(b), a hole 31 for ligation is provided in the main body 1, and the ligation is performed as shown in FIG. 3(C). li by thread 32
One possible method is to fix it to the container 28.

Further, the method of fixing the main body 1 to the living body is by using an adhesive in each of the above embodiments, but the present invention is not limited to this, and a suction cup 33 is provided as shown in FIG. The suction cup 33 can also be fixed to a living body. By doing so, the main body 1 can be easily attached to the living body and can be firmly fixed.

[Effects of the Invention] As described above, according to the present invention, since the nail of the drug contained in the ultrasonic medium is detected, the amount of the drug released can be controlled to an appropriate value.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram showing the configuration of an ultrasonic drug release system according to a first embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing the configuration of an ultrasonic drug release system according to a second embodiment of the present invention, Fig. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of actual use of the ultrasonic drug release system of the present invention and a method for attaching it to an organ. Fig. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of the actual use of the ultrasonic drug release system of the present invention and a method for attaching it to an organ. It is an explanatory view not showing the case of attachment. 1... Main body 3... Base material 5... Connection cord 11... Transmission circuit 13... Receiving circuit 15... CPU 17... 27 Indicator 21... Phase detection circuit 2. ...Ultrasonic transducer 4...Control unit 12...Pulse generator 14...Signal processing circuit 16...Monitor 18...Input/output ff, I+ control circuit 22...Phase processing circuit Diagram Figure 2 Figure 3 (b) Busy) Figure 4 Procedure Ne... Official book (self-prompted) 1989, 1989, box 11, line 5, ``...PUD''
Let's correct "F..." to [...P V D F...]. 2. In the statement box, page 11, line 7, “...PUD
Shimazu corrected "F..." to [...PVDF...]. 1. Indication of the case 1988 Patent Application No. 298765 @ 2. Name of the invention Ultrasonic drug release system 3. Person making the amendment Relationship with the case

Claims (1)

[Claims] An ultrasonic type comprising an ultrasonic transducer, an ultrasonic medium containing a drug released by the vibration of the ultrasonic transducer, and a detection means for detecting the amount of the drug contained in the ultrasonic medium. Drug release system.