JPH02215701A - Organ preserving device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To obtain an organ preserving device in preserving an extracted organ at a low temperature by equipping the organ with an ultrasonic propagating means and a measuring means of ultrasonic propagation velocity, detecting preservation state of the organ and changing the preservation condition thereby. CONSTITUTION:An extracted organ which has been preserved at a low temperature is equipped with an ultrasonic propagating means and a measuring means of ultrasonic propagation velocity to give an organ preserving device which grasps preservation state of the organ and can change preservation conditions. By using the device, the preservation state in the interior of the organ which can not be observed from the surface can be surely grasped without damaging the organ and the organ can be properly preserved at a low temperature. Consequently, there is no inconvenience of losing timing of changing the preservation condition and of overlooking abnormality of organ at a hospital of recipient side.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Industrial Application Field] The present invention provides a method for temporarily preserving organs, such as hearts and livers, extracted from humans or animals when transplanting them to other patients or animals. The present invention relates to an organ preservation device.

[Conventional technology]

Conventionally, methods for preserving removed organs include simple cooling preservation and low-temperature perfusion preservation.

The former is used when the extracted organ is placed in a box cooler filled with ice and transported from the donor hospital to the recipe end hospital.

The latter is disclosed in, for example, U.S. Pat.
As disclosed in No. 28940, a low-temperature perfusion fluid circulation circuit is formed, and the perfusion fluid is supplied to the organs in the organ storage chamber while being stored at a constant temperature.

In these organ preservation methods, it is required to detect the state of preservation of the extracted organ. In other words, organ transportation only needs to be completed in a very short time, but if a certain amount of time is required, storage conditions may need to be changed depending on the progress of the organ. As a means for detecting the preservation state of an extracted organ within an organ preservation device, the present applicant has already proposed a means for detecting it from color information on the surface of the organ (Japanese Patent Application No. 137001/1982).

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

However, in the above-mentioned conventional technology, the state of preservation of the organ was detected based on color information on the surface of the organ, so there was a problem in that the state inside the organ could not be grasped. This has led to inconveniences such as losing the timing to change storage conditions or overlooking organ abnormalities at the hospital at the recipe end.

The present invention is proposed to solve the above problems,
The object of the present invention is to provide an organ preservation device that can grasp the state of preservation inside a preserved organ by detecting acoustic information inside the preserved organ.

[Means and effects for solving the problem] In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides an organ preservation device for preserving extracted organs in a low-temperature atmosphere. The storage condition evaluation means is provided with means for measuring the sound wave propagation velocity.

By transmitting ultrasonic waves to an organ and measuring the propagation velocity in this way, it is possible to understand the state of preservation without damaging the organ.

[Example] FIG. 1A shows a first example of the present invention, which is applied to a simple cooling preservation method for organs (the same applies to the following examples). The organ preservation device 1 includes a cold container section 2 and an electrical system section 3.

The cold container section 2 has a box shape with an outer lid 4 on the top, and an organ storage chamber 5 is provided inside, and a cooling agent 6 such as ice is arranged around the organ storage chamber 5 so as to fill the space. are doing. An organ mounting device 13 made of silicone rubber is provided at the bottom of the storage chamber 5 in which an ultrasonic transducer 7 is embedded at a substantially central position so that its upper surface is flush with the upper surface of the bottom.

On the other hand, a lid 8 is provided on the top of the storage chamber 5, and a cough! 8, there is a threaded handle 9 that can be moved up and down over the storage chamber 5.
has been established. A transducer 10 is attached to the lower end of the threaded portion 16 of the threaded handle 9, and the W&
can be held between both transducers 7 and 10. Note that the inside of the storage chamber 5 is filled with a preservation liquid 12.

FIG. 1B is an enlarged sectional view of the lid 8. FIG. Handle with screw 9
A pulley 15 that rotates via the rotating shaft 14 is engaged with the thread groove 16a of the threaded portion 16, and the pulley 15 has the rotating shaft 1.
It engages another pulley 17 which rotates throughout the day. 1
9 is a variable resistor having a pulley 17, and the rotation axis of the variable resistor 19 and the rotation axis of the pulley 17 are common.

The control section 26 provided in the electrical system section 3 is connected to the transducer IO via the transmitting circuit 27, and the other transducer 7 is connected via the receiving circuit 23, storage section 22, and calculation section 21. and connected to the display section 20.

FIG. 1C shows the variable resistor 19 using electrical symbols, in which the a and b terminals are connected to the power supply section 24, and the C terminal is connected to the voltage detection section 25. The voltage detection section 25 is the calculation section 21
In addition to being connected to the control unit 26, the transmission circuit 27,
It is connected to a power supply section 24 along with a display section 20, a calculation section 21, a storage section 22, and a reception circuit 23.

To explain the operation of this embodiment configured in this way, the organ II is placed on the organ holder 13 inside the storage chamber 5 so that the transducer 7 is in contact with the lower surface of the organ. after that,
! 8 and screwed into the storage chamber 5 while rotating the threaded handle 9, and the threaded part 16 is lowered until the transducer 10 comes into contact with the upper surface of the organ. After that, ice is put into the cold storage container part 2 to fill the space around the storage chamber 5, and the outside 114 is closed.

Next, the power supply section 24 of the electrical system section 3 is turned on, and ultrasonic waves are emitted from the transducer 10 toward the organ 11 under the control of the control section 26 and an electric signal transmitted from the transmission circuit 27 . The ultrasonic waves that have propagated through the organ 11 are converted back into electrical signals by the transducer 7 and received, and are stored in the storage unit 22 via the receiving circuit 23 .

On the other hand, the voltage at the C terminal of the variable resistor 19 changes through the rotation of the pulleys 15 and 17 by rotating the threaded handle 9, and the voltage value changes between the transducer 7 and the transducer 10. represents the distance between This is returned to an appropriate electric signal by the voltage detection section 25 and inputted to the calculation section 21 together with the signal from the storage section 22 to calculate the propagation velocity of the ultrasonic wave, etc., and display the result on the display section 20. .

Based on the information stored in this way, such as the ultrasonic propagation velocity inside the organ, the internal state of the organ can be evaluated without causing damage to the organ.

FIG. 2 shows a second embodiment of the present invention, in which parts corresponding to those in the first embodiment are given the same reference numerals (the same applies to the following embodiments). A gear-shaped groove 9a is formed on the outer periphery of a certain threaded handle 9, as shown in the plan view of FIG. 2B, and meshes with a gear 29 rotated by a motor 28 provided on the handle 18. A contact sensor 30 is attached to the transducer 7 inside the storage chamber 5.

The electrical system section 3 is provided with a control section 31 and a detection section 32, and the contact sensor 30 is connected to the detection section 32.
1 is connected to the motor 28. The other configurations are the same as those in the first embodiment.

To explain the operation of this embodiment configured in this way, in order to store the organ 11 in the storage chamber 5 and place the transducer 7. After being placed on top, the control unit 31 drives the motor 28 to rotate the rotary gear 29. This rotation rotates the threaded handle 9, and the threaded portion 16 descends until the transducer 10 comes into contact with the organ 11, and upon contact, the contact sensor 30 outputs an electrical signal. - The electrical signal is transmitted to the detection unit 32 and detected, and the control unit 3
1, a stop command is sent from the control unit 31 to the motor 28, and the motor 28 is stopped. In this way, the operation of bringing the transducer 7.degree. 10 into a state where ultrasonic waves can be radiated to the organ 11 can be performed automatically without manual operation, and the preservation state can be efficiently detected. The other series of operations are the same as in the first embodiment.

FIG. 3 shows a third embodiment of the invention. In this embodiment, the variable resistor and voltage detection section in each of the embodiments described above are not provided. Organ mounting device 1 is placed in the cold container section 2.
Another transducer 33 is arranged in parallel with the third transducer 7 at a required interval, and furthermore, another transducer 34 is arranged in parallel with the transducer 10 via a coupling member 35. Of these transducers, 7 and 33 are arranged at the same height within the storage chamber 5,
10 and 34 are also at the same height, and 7 and 33 are also located at the same height.
It is arranged so that it corresponds to the vertical direction.

In the electrical system section 3, in addition to the receiving circuit 23, another receiving circuit 36 is installed in parallel.

To explain the operation of this embodiment configured in this way, the organ 1 is placed at a predetermined position in order to radiate ultrasonic waves to the organ 11.
The transducer 10 is brought into contact with 1.

This rotates the threaded handle 9 to lower the threaded portion 16, and the transducer 34 also lowers in conjunction. In this way, the distance between transducers 10 and 7 and the distance between transducers 34 and 33 are the same. The ultrasonic waves emitted from the transducer 10 propagate through the organ 11 and are converted into electrical signals by the transducer 7, and then sent to the calculation unit 2 via the receiving circuit 36 and the storage unit 22.
Enter 1. On the other hand, the ultrasonic waves emitted from the transducer 34 propagate through the storage solution 12 and reach the transducer 33.
The signal is converted into an electrical signal and enters the arithmetic unit 21 via the receiving circuit 23 and the storage unit 22.

The calculation unit 21 performs calculations such as calculating the transmission time of the ultrasound between the transducers 34 and 33 by the transmission time of the ultrasound between the transducers 10 and 7, and calculates the result. The information is displayed on the display unit 20 to grasp the internal state of the organ. This embodiment has the advantage that, unlike the previous embodiments, information regarding the ultrasonic propagation velocity within the organ can be obtained without measuring the distance between the transducers, so that the electrical and mechanical configuration can be simplified.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As described above, according to the present invention, by detecting acoustic information, it is possible to reliably grasp the internal state of preservation that cannot be detected from the surface, without damaging the organ being preserved, and to preserve organs at appropriate low temperatures. equipment can be provided.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIGS. 1A, B, and C are schematic explanatory diagrams and partial explanatory diagrams of the entire apparatus according to the first embodiment of the present invention, and FIGS. 2A and B are schematic explanatory diagrams of the entire apparatus according to the second embodiment of the present invention. Figures and Partial Plan Views FIG. 3 is a schematic explanatory diagram of the entire apparatus according to the third embodiment of the present invention. 1... Organ preservation device 2... Cold container part 3...
・Electrical system part 7...Transducer 10・
...Transducer 11...Organ 21...Arithmetic section 23...Reception circuit 27...Transmission circuit Fig. 1A Fig. 2

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. An organ preservation device that preserves extracted organs in a low-temperature atmosphere is provided with preservation state evaluation means having at least means for propagating ultrasound waves to the organ being preserved and means for measuring the ultrasonic propagation velocity. Characteristic organ preservation device.