JPH0241977B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a hyperthermia heating device, and more particularly to a hyperthermia heating device configured to be able to treat a plurality of patients individually.

In recent years, a treatment method using heating therapy (also called "hyperthermia") has been in the spotlight, in particular by heating malignant tumors continuously for 1 to 2 hours at around 43 degrees Celsius, and at regular intervals. A number of research reports have been made that by repeating this process, it is possible to inhibit the regenerative function of cancer cells and at the same time kill many of them (Measurement and Control Vol. 22, No. 10). This type of heating therapy includes a general heating method and a local heating method. Of these,
As local heating methods for selectively warming only the cancer tissue and its surroundings, methods using electromagnetic waves, methods using electromagnetic induction, methods using ultrasound, and the like have been proposed.

On the other hand, as is already known among researchers in the art, the heating effect on cancer tissue is said to be around 43 [℃], and if it is lower than this, the effect will be diminished, and vice versa. If the concentration is too high, it may harm normal tissues and is not desirable. That is, in hyperthermia, the temperature of the body must be maintained within a narrow temperature range that causes lethal damage to cancerous tissues but does not cause much harm to normal tissues.

However, with conventional technology, it is not easy to maintain the target area at a constant temperature of around 43 [℃] for 1 to 2 hours due to the special nature of biological functions, especially when it comes to deep heating of the living body. .
In particular, heating therapy using electromagnetic waves has been abandoned for a long time because the electromagnetic wave absorption rate of the surface of a living body is extremely high, so conventional techniques were considered unsuitable for deep heating.

Therefore, the inventors developed a hyperthermia device with a control function that can continuously and accurately heat a predetermined heating point within a living body to a predetermined temperature using electromagnetic waves for a certain period of time. We are proposing a heating device for heating (Japanese Patent Application No. 40793/1983).

[Problem that the invention seeks to solve]

For heating therapy, one treatment time is relatively long (about 1 hour), and the number of treatments is repeated multiple times (about 5 to 7 times) at regular intervals, so the total treatment for one patient is The time is very long. Therefore, in order to treat many patients early and quickly, a plurality of treatment facilities are inevitably required. On the other hand, this not only requires a huge investment in equipment, but also requires precise operation of multiple equipment to set the optimal treatment conditions for each patient. There is a problem unique to therapeutic medical devices in that it requires time and effort, and there remains the technical problem of how to protect the normal tissue around the affected area during treatment of the affected area using heating therapy. . For this reason, the challenge is how to minimize capital investment, quickly manage multiple heating devices, and provide rapid treatment to many patients while protecting normal tissue. This was considered an important issue for heating therapy.

[Purpose of the invention]

The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned problems, and allows efficient and independent management and treatment of a plurality of patients, suppresses equipment investment for electromagnetic wave generation means when concurrently treating each of these patients, and enables The object of the present invention is to provide a hyperthermia heating device that protects the normal tissue of the patient.

[Means for solving problems]

Therefore, in the present invention, a single electromagnetic wave generating means, an electromagnetic wave branching means for branching the electromagnetic waves outputted from the electromagnetic wave generating means into a plurality of output parts, and a plurality of electromagnetic wave branching means installed corresponding to the plurality of output parts are provided. In a hyperthermia heating device that includes an applicator and a cooling mechanism for cooling the surface of a living body that is installed in each applicator, an electromagnetic wave switching mechanism is provided between each applicator and each output part of the electromagnetic wave branching means. In addition, a plurality of main control sections are provided to drive and control the electromagnetic wave switching mechanism and the cooling mechanism separately for each applicator. Furthermore, a first temperature measurement means for measuring the temperature of the in-vivo heating treatment part that is in contact with each applicator, and a second temperature measurement unit that measures the temperature of the body surface part that is in contact with each applicator. Each applicator is provided with a third temperature measuring means for measuring the temperature of an intermediate portion in the living body between each heating treatment section and the surface of the living body. Then, each main control section further controls the second control section.
a first function that increases or decreases the cooling capacity of the cooling mechanism according to the magnitude of the output of the temperature measuring means, and a corresponding electromagnetic wave switching mechanism when the third temperature measuring means detects a temperature equal to or higher than a predetermined temperature. a second control function that controls switching to the dummy load side that is separately equipped for electromagnetic wave absorption; The device is designed to have a third function of immediately starting the heating treatment time when the measured temperature is below a set value, thereby attempting to achieve the above purpose. .

[Effect]

After each applicator is brought into contact with the surface of the heating section of each patient, electromagnetic waves are irradiated from the electromagnetic wave generating means via the electromagnetic wave branching means, and the body surface at this contact portion, the intermediate part of the body immediately below it, and the The temperature of the affected area in the body, which is the warm treatment area, increases. In this case, the temperature of the living body surface, the intermediate part of the living body immediately below it, and the affected part of the living body are constantly measured at predetermined time intervals by first and second temperature measuring means provided at each of these parts, and individual information for each patient is obtained. are sent to the corresponding individual main control units for processing. and,
Heating control for each patient is performed independently by a main control section equipped individually. In this case, when starting heating treatment, if the temperature of the internal heating point exceeds the set value and at the same time the temperature of the surface of the living body is below the set value, the third function of the main control unit operates to heat the area. Time counting begins. When the intermediate part of the body is heated to a temperature higher than the set value, the corresponding electromagnetic wave switching mechanism is immediately switched to the dummy load side according to instructions from the corresponding main control unit, and the irradiation of electromagnetic waves is thereby stopped for a certain period of time. Interruption is controlled during this period. Therefore, in the present invention, heating treatment of the affected areas in the body of multiple patients can be managed by each individual main control unit without causing pain to the patients while protecting the normal tissue in the middle part of the body. Each test is carried out safely and continuously over a long period of time.

[Embodiments of the invention]

Hereinafter, one embodiment of the present invention will be described based on FIGS. 1 to 9.

The embodiment shown in FIGS. 1 to 9 includes a branching circuit 10 as electromagnetic wave branching means for branching electromagnetic waves outputted from a microwave oscillator 8 as a single electromagnetic wave generating means into a plurality of output parts, and A plurality of applicators 24 are provided corresponding to a plurality of output sections, and a cooling mechanism 44 for cooling the surface of a living body is provided in each applicator 24.
A coaxial switch 12 and a dummy load DM1 as an electromagnetic wave switching and absorption mechanism are provided between each of the plurality of applicators 24 and each output section of the branch circuit 10. This coaxial switch 12 and cooling mechanism 44
A plurality of main control units 22 are provided to drive and control each applicator 24.

Furthermore, a first temperature sensor 40 serving as a first temperature measuring means for measuring the temperature of the in-vivo heating treatment portion of the portion to which each applicator 24 comes into contact, and a living body surface portion to which each applicator 24 comes into contact. a second temperature sensor 38 as a second temperature measuring means for measuring the temperature of A temperature sensor 42 is provided for each applicator.

Each of the plurality of main control units 22 further includes the second
A first control unit that increases or decreases the cooling capacity of the cooling mechanism 44 according to the magnitude of the output of the temperature sensor 38.
function, and when the third temperature sensor 42 detects a temperature higher than a predetermined temperature, the corresponding coaxial switch 1
2 separately equipped dummy load for electromagnetic wave absorption
The second function switches to DM1 and the temperature measured by the first temperature sensor 40 first becomes equal to or higher than the set value, and at the same time the second temperature sensor 38
The third function is to immediately start the heating treatment time when the measured temperature is below the set value.

To explain this in more detail, the hyperthermia heating device shown in FIG.
, a control means 4 including a plurality of main control sections, a surface cooling section 6, and a plurality of applicators 24 as electromagnetic wave irradiation sections for the heating treatment section.

The electromagnetic wave output unit 2 includes a microwave oscillator (hereinafter referred to as "oscillator") 8 as an electromagnetic wave generating means,
A branch circuit 10 as an electromagnetic wave branching means for branching the microwave output from the oscillator 8 into three directions so that microwaves can be irradiated to a plurality of patients (three in this example) at the same time; The output of the branched microwave is transferred to the applicator 24.
a coaxial switch 12 as an electromagnetic wave switching mechanism for switching to the side or dummy load DM1 side, and an attenuator 14 as an electromagnetic wave variable attenuation means for adjusting the output of the microwave supplied via the coaxial switch 12.
, an isolator 16 that prevents the influence of reflected waves from entering the branch circuit 10, and a directional coupler 18 that is equipped correspondingly.
and a diode 20.

The branch circuit 10 branches the microwave output from the oscillator 8 into three directions in this embodiment, and the branching ratio is specified by the structure of the branch circuit 10. The microwave branched by this branch circuit 10 is adjusted by each attenuator 14 according to the treatment situation of each patient and is individually supplied to the heating treatment section via each applicator 24. In this way, when the temperature of the intermediate part inside the living body exceeds a set value, the irradiation is supplied to the dummy load DM1 by switching the coaxial switch 12, and the irradiation to the living body can be interrupted. The switching of this coaxial switch 12 and the attenuator 14
Adjustment of the amount of attenuation is performed sequentially based on information from the main control section 22, which is separately provided in accordance with the adjustment.

Further, the directional coupler 18 is a device that separates and takes out the incident wave and the reflected wave, and the microwave taken out here is detected by the diode 20, converted into voltage, and then sent to the A/D converter. (not shown) to the corresponding main control unit 22. This main control section 22 is
The difference between the power level value of the extracted incident wave and the power level of the reflected wave is calculated, and the power of the microwave effectively supplied to the applicator 24, which will be described later, is calculated. From this result, the attenuation amount of the attenuator 14 is calculated. It has the ability to adjust.

On the other hand, in this embodiment, the surface cooling unit 6 includes a plurality of cooling devices 26 that cool the cooling liquid for cooling the opening side of each applicator 24, that is, the biological surface, and the output (cooling capacity) of each cooling device 26. The cooling control circuit 30 has a plurality of cooling control circuits 30 that adjust the cooling control circuits individually. Corresponding to each of these, a pump 2 circulates the coolant cooled by the cooling device 26 to a cooling mechanism 44 attached to the applicator 24, which will be described later.
8, and a valve 32 for adjusting the flow rate of the cooling liquid.
, a valve control unit 34 for controlling the valve 32, and a flow rate sensor 36 for detecting the flow rate of the coolant, and a second temperature measuring means for detecting the temperature of the coolant. A sensor 38, a first temperature sensor 40 as a first temperature measuring means for detecting the temperature of a cancer tissue (affected part in a living body) which is a heating treatment part, and a temperature sensor 40 which is a temperature sensor 40 which is a temperature sensor 40 which is a temperature sensor that detects the temperature of a cancer tissue (affected part in a living body) which is a heating treatment part; 3rd to detect the temperature of
A third temperature sensor 42 is provided as a temperature measuring means. Here, in this FIG. 1, the applicators, various sensors, various controllers, main control section, and coaxial switch coordinates for the other two patients are omitted.

Further, as shown in FIG. 2, the applicator 24 is an antenna that comes into contact with a living body 46 to irradiate the living body 46 with microwaves and heat the target cancer tissue. A cooling mechanism 44 is provided for each applicator 24 in order to prevent skin burns due to overheating due to dielectric loss in the skin area. The cooling mechanism 44 is provided with a pipe 49 for passing the water used as the cooling liquid in this embodiment, and the water cooled by the cooling device 26 is forcibly circulated by the pump 28, and the valve Adjust the flow rate by 32,
By passing through the cooling mechanism 44, the biological surface located on the opening surface of the applicator 24 is cooled.

On the other hand, the degree of opening and closing of the valve 32 is controlled by a valve control unit 34, and the flow rate of cooling water is changed depending on the degree of opening and closing of the valve 32. The temperature of the surface of the living body 46 is adjusted by adjusting the output (cooling capacity) and adjusting the water temperature of the cooling liquid. The flow rate of water is detected by a flow rate sensor 36, and this detected information can be sent to the main control unit 22 via an A/D converter (not shown), which controls the degree of opening and closing of the valve 32. This is one reference value for Further, a temperature sensor 38 for detecting the water temperature of the cooling mechanism 44 is provided on the water discharge side of the cooling mechanism 44, and based on the temperature information detected here, the temperature sensor 38 is connected to the applicator 24. The structure is such that the surface temperature of the living body 46 is determined. This surface temperature becomes the main information for adjusting the opening/closing degree of the valve 32 and the output of the cooling device 26.

The first temperature sensor 40 is a sensor for detecting the temperature of the cancer tissue as described above, and the third temperature sensor 42 detects the temperature of the intermediate part in the body between the surface of the body and the cancer tissue. The attenuation amount of the attenuator 14 is adjusted by the main control unit 22 based on the information obtained by each of these sensors.

On the other hand, the control means 4 includes a plurality of input/output sections 48 provided for each patient in order to input various information from the operator and inform the operator of the treatment status, and a plurality of input/output sections 48 corresponding to each of the input/output sections. It is comprised of a plurality of main control sections 22 that control and manage input/output devices and the like based on the provided program memory and data memory, and serve as the core of this system.

That is, the main control unit 22 controls each sensor 20, 36,
The information obtained in steps 38, 40, and 42 is input via an A/D converter (not shown), and based on this information, the temperature of the cancer tissue, the internal body middle part, and the body surface temperature are set to desired values. The opening/closing degree of the valve 32, the output of the cooling device, the amount of attenuation of the attenuator 14, and the switching of the coaxial switch 12 are controlled so that the temperature is maintained, and the above-mentioned information is sent to the input/output section 48 in order to notify the operator of the heating state. It is now being sent to

Next, the overall operation of the above device will be explained based on FIG. Here, the applicator 24
The temperature of the surface of the body that comes into contact with the body is 20 [℃], the temperature of the intermediate part of the body immediately below it is 40 [℃], and the temperature of the cancer tissue is
The temperature shall be 43.5 [℃].

First, the cooling device 26 is started (FIG. 3 50),
After the water has been sufficiently cooled, the pump 28 is started (52 in the same figure), and the valve 32 is controlled based on the information detected from the flow rate sensor 36 so that the cooling water is circulated to a minimum level (52 in the same figure). 54, 56). and,
Thereafter, the output level value of the oscillator 8 inputted by the operator according to the depth of the patient's cancerous tissue is adjusted to the attenuator 1.
4 (58 in the same figure). The reason why the minimum attenuation of the attenuator 14 is set according to the deep part of the cancer tissue is that when the microwave output is large (in this case, the value of the minimum attenuation is small), the temperature peaks during heating. is close to the surface, whereas when the microwave output is small (the minimum attenuation value is large), the temperature peak shifts to the branch so that the temperature gradually penetrates deeper, so each patient This is because it is necessary to set it to an appropriate value. Figure 4 is 2450
Temperature distribution (A) obtained when microwaves of [MHz] are irradiated based on the reference amount, and temperature distribution obtained by irradiating microwaves when the output is reduced by 3 [dB] from the reference amount in this case. A comparison is shown with the temperature distribution (B). This frequency band is the highest frequency range for heating treatment, and therefore the heating depth is limited to the superficial layer. Despite this, it can be seen that when the output is reduced, the temperature peaks approximately 0.25 cm deeper. However, reducing the power requires more time to bring the cancer tissue to the desired temperature. Fifth
The figure shows the rise in temperature distribution over a certain period of time.
As time passes, the rate of increase is decreasing. This is because the surface of the living body is cooled, so as the internal temperature rises, heat is taken away to the outside, and it is also affected by the blood flow of the living body.

The minimum attenuation amount of the attenuator 14 described above is set by the main controller 2 based on information from the directional coupler 18.
It is done in 2. That is, from the difference in the power values of the incident wave and the reflected wave detected by the directional coupler 18, the output of the microwave that is effectively supplied to the applicator 24 is determined, and this output is sent to the operator via the input/output section 48. Attenuator 1 is then adjusted to the set value.
The minimum attenuation amount of 4 is set. Note that in this case, the minimum attenuation amount may be set in advance using a phantom model. Also, the attenuator 14 here
Let P ₁ , P ₂ , and P ₃ be the maximum outputs of microwaves for each patient based on the minimum attenuation setting of .
After the minimum attenuation amount is set, microwave irradiation is started (FIG. 3, 60), and temperature measurement of each part of the living body is started. This is because, when heating a living body during microwave irradiation, each part of the living body is not heated to near the set value until a certain amount of time has elapsed after the start of microwave irradiation.

After the temperature is measured, it is first determined whether the temperature at the middle part of the body is higher than a set value (40 [°C]) input in advance by the operator (see Figure 6).
4). If this temperature is higher than the set value, the coaxial switch 12 is immediately controlled by the main control section 22.
is switched to the dummy load DM1 side, the microwave irradiation to the living body is interrupted (66 in the same figure), and the temperature at the middle part of the living body is measured again. The measurement loop is repeated (68, 70 in the same figure). In this case, the reason why the microwave irradiation is interrupted and the next process is not started until the temperature drops to the predetermined temperature is because the in-vivo intermediate part is at the set value (40
If you continue to irradiate microwaves in a state heated above [℃]), the temperature in the middle part of the body will continue to rise even if the microwave irradiation level is controlled to decrease, which will have a negative impact on normal tissue. This is to prevent this in advance, since it has been experimentally clear that the temperature easily reaches the temperature that causes the reaction (see Fig. 8).

When this temperature has fallen to the low level set value, the main controller 22 increases the attenuation amount of the attenuator 14 by one step, switches the coaxial switch 12 to the applicator 24 side, and stops microwave irradiation to the living body. The process is restarted (72, 74 in the same figure) and returns to step 62 in the figure again to measure the temperature.

On the other hand, if the intermediate region temperature is lower than the set value (40 [℃]) input by the operator, the normal tissue in the intermediate region is intact. It is determined whether the temperature is higher than the input set value (20 [℃]) (third
Figure 76). When the surface temperature is high, the valve 32 is opened by one step via the valve control unit 34 under the control of the main controller 22, and the output of the cooling device 26 is increased by one step via the cooling control circuit 30. Figure 78),
The process returns to step 62 in the figure and continues processing. That is, by increasing the opening degree of the valve 32 one step at a time and at the same time increasing the output of the cooling device 26 one step at a time until the biological surface temperature falls below the set value, the temperature of the cooling water is lowered and the biological body is Perform surface cooling. When the surface temperature falls below the set value, the opening of the valve 32 is closed by one step to prevent the surface of the living body 46 from being cooled too much (however, if the cooling water drops below the minimum circulation rate) At the same time, the output of the cooling device 26 is lowered by one step (80 in the same figure), and then temperature adjustment of the affected part (cancer tissue) in the body is started (86 in the same figure).
In this case, since water is being circulated by the pump 28, no burns will occur on the surface layer of the living body 46, so the output of the cooling device 26 may be turned off.

Here, it is determined whether the temperature of the affected part in the living body is higher than the set temperature of the affected part (43.5 [°C]) input by the operator (86 in the same figure), and if it is lower, the temperature is controlled by the main control unit 22. The attenuation amount of the attenuator 14 is 1
Step down and increase the output setting value of the microwave electromagnetic wave energy irradiated to the living body. However, in this case, the amount of attenuation should not exceed the initially set minimum attenuation amount (89, 90 in the same figure). That is,
By decreasing the attenuation amount of the attenuator 14 step by step until the cancer tissue becomes higher than the set value, the microwave output set value is gradually increased and the living body is irradiated.

As a result, it is determined whether the temperature of the cancerous tissue has exceeded the set temperature of the affected area for the first time (81 in the same figure), and if it has exceeded it for the first time, measurement of the heating time is started (82 in the same figure) and the process proceeds to 84 in the figure. That is, the measurement of the heating time is started when the temperature of the cancerous tissue exceeds the set temperature of the affected area for the first time, and then the attenuator 14 is controlled by the main controller 22.
The attenuation amount is increased every step (84 in the same figure).

Next, the main control section 22 opens the valve 32 by one step via the valve control unit 34, and at the same time increases the output of the cooling device 26 by one step via the cooling control circuit 30 (78 in the same figure).
The temperature is measured again (62 in the same figure). This is the third
This is to compensate for the fact that the output of the cooling device 26 is decreased by one step at the same time as the valve 32 is closed by one step at 80 in the figure. In other words, when the temperature of the cancerous tissue becomes higher than the set value, it is necessary to cool the surface of the living body so that the temperature of the cancerous tissue approaches the set value as quickly as possible.

By the way, the correlation between the heating time and the lethality of cancer tissue depends on the time it takes for the cancer tissue to reach a temperature around 43 [°C]. Therefore, in this example, the heating time is measured from the time when the cancer tissue exceeds the set value (see 82 in the same figure), and when the heating time input by the operator as described above has arrived. Finish heating (92, 6 in the same figure)
4).

FIG. 6 shows the temperature state of the cancer tissue and the output state of the magnetron 8 during each microwave irradiation and measurement. In this figure, intervals where the temperature distribution is rising are times when the microwave output is rising, and intervals where the temperature distribution is falling is when the microwave output is falling. In the figure, point A indicates the point at which the temperature of the affected area exceeds the set temperature for the first time as a result of microwave irradiation using the minimum attenuation amount of the attenuator 14, and measurement begins, and the above-mentioned heating time starts from this point. be done. After this, the microwave output reduction control continues until the temperature of the affected area falls below 43.5 [℃] (in the figure).
BC). Therefore, the slope between BC and AB is decreasing. Also, because I had lowered the output setting value of magnetron 8 too much, the temperature quickly dropped to 43.5.
If the temperature does not reach [℃] (for example, CD in the figure),
As shown in step 90 of the flowchart of FIG. 3, the attenuation amount is immediately reduced, so the slope rises again (for example, DE in the figure). By repeating such control, temperature control with almost no ripples can be obtained.

In addition, during the microwave irradiation time, the temperature was initially 43.5 [℃].
It is necessary to set the maximum output and irradiation time of the magnetron 8 so that the temperature does not rise more than 1.5 [°C] even if the temperature exceeds 43.5 [°C]. This is because if the temperature rises by more than 1.5 degrees Celsius, the temperature will exceed 45 degrees Celsius, which will have an adverse effect on normal tissue. As a method of determining this set value, for example, the temperature rise at the initial stage of microwave irradiation (OP in Figure 6) is
One possible setting method is to set the temperature below ℃. This is based on the fact that, as shown in Figure 5, the temperature increase rate for each hour tends to increase in the early stages, and the rate of increase becomes about 1/2 at around 43.5 [℃]. .

On the other hand, FIG. 7 shows the temperature state of the cancer tissue at P ₂ when the minimum attenuation of the attenuator 14 is set high, that is, the maximum output of the microwave is set low because the cancer tissue is located relatively deep. It shows.

FIG. 8 shows the temperature state of the affected part in the body when the intermediate part temperature is detected to be higher than the set value. In this figure, if the temperature of the middle part exceeds the set value at point A', if microwaves are continuously irradiated, the middle part of the body will significantly increase the permissible temperature (43.5 [℃]) regardless of the strength of the microwave. (point B′ in the figure)
In such cases, microwave irradiation must be immediately interrupted.

In this way, in the above embodiment, a plurality (3
Equipped with a branch circuit 10 having two output stages,
Multiple (3) main control units 2 corresponding to individual patients
2, it is possible to perform heating treatment on multiple (2 to 3) patients at the same time using one microwave oscillator.
Each microwave output section 2 corresponds to each
Since the output level and temperature of the coolant are adjusted at each time, a stable treatment state with little ripple in the heating temperature can be maintained for a relatively long time, and the action of the surface cooling unit 6 reduces patient pain. In addition to being able to significantly alleviate the temperature of the body's intermediate parts, it is possible to prevent abnormal heating of the cancerous area because it constantly measures the temperature at the intermediate part of the body, and it also does not interrupt the microwave irradiation when measuring the temperature of each part of the body. It has the advantage of low energy loss.

Here, in the above-mentioned embodiment, the temperature of the biological surface was determined by detecting the temperature of the cooling water, but the present invention is not limited to this. Good too.

In addition, in the living body warming treatment in this embodiment, as shown in FIG. Accordingly, the flowchart shown in FIG. 3 described above is implemented. That is, if the minimum microwave irradiation-temperature measurement interval for a living body is h,
In this example, the temperature is measured every 2 hours, the flowchart shown in Fig. 3 is processed during Δh, irradiation is performed at the next microwave output level during this period, the temperature is measured again, and the next microwave output level is set. The treatment is performed by repeating the process of determining the temperature until the end of the heating time.

Moreover, FIG. 10 shows a flowchart (the dotted line portion of the flowchart in FIG. 3 has been changed) when microwave irradiation is interrupted when measuring the temperature of each part of a living body in the steam embodiment. That is, after setting the minimum attenuation amount of the attenuator 14, microwaves are irradiated to the living body for a certain period of time (100 in Fig. 10), and then the coaxial switch 12 is changed to the DM1 side for the first time (101 in the same figure), and the (102 in the same figure), and if the temperature in the middle part of the body is higher than the set value, the middle part temperature measurement loop is repeated until the middle part temperature falls to the low level set value (104 in the same figure, 105), if it has decreased, the attenuation amount of the attenuator 14 is set to increase by one step, and microwave irradiation is performed again for a certain period of time (100 in the same figure). On the other hand, if the intermediate part temperature is lower than the set value, the same process as shown in the flowchart shown in Figure 3 above is carried out, but if the body surface temperature or the affected part temperature in the body is higher than the set value (Fig. 10
7, 110), and temperature measurement loops (see 111, 112, 113,
108), but at this time, in Figure 10,
The temperature measurement loop is repeated until the surface temperature and the affected area temperature drop to the set value, and when these temperatures drop below the set value, the temperature returns to 100 in the figure according to the attenuation amount of the attenuator 14 adjusted during this time. Irradiate microwaves for a certain period of time. The other configurations are the same as in FIG. 3.

Even with the above configuration, as shown in FIG. 11, the rise time for heating cancer tissue is somewhat longer, but almost the same effect as that in FIG. 3 can be obtained, especially at high frequencies. This is advantageous for heating treatments that use electromagnetic waves.

In addition, in each of the above embodiments, the electromagnetic wave attenuator 1
Although the case where the output level of the microwave is controlled using the attenuator 14 has been exemplified, substantially the same effect can be obtained even if the attenuator 14 is omitted by effectively using the switching control of the coaxial switch 12.

〔Effect of the invention〕

Since the present invention is configured and operates as described above,
According to this, it is not only possible to independently manage multiple patients individually, switch and control electromagnetic wave irradiation as necessary, and treat them in parallel, but also to treat each patient in parallel without stopping the operation of the electromagnetic wave generating means. Electromagnetic wave irradiation adapted to each patient can be interrupted or continued individually, and a single electromagnetic wave generation means can be used jointly, making it possible to effectively suppress equipment investment. In particular, when the temperature measured by the first temperature measuring means is initially equal to or higher than the set value and at the same time the temperature measured by the second temperature measuring means is equal to or lower than the set value, each of the main control parts immediately applies the Since it is equipped with a third mechanism that starts the progression of the warm treatment time, it is an unprecedented and excellent addition to hyperthermia that more effectively protects the patient's normal tissue, such as the biological surface, during treatment. A heating device can be provided.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an overall system diagram showing one embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing how the applicator is used, FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing an example of the operation of FIG. 1, and FIG. 4 7 to 7 are respectively explanatory diagrams of the operation of FIG. 1, FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram showing the abnormal heating state of the middle part of the body, and FIG. A time chart showing the measurement, FIG. 10 is a flow chart showing another example, and FIG. 11 shows the temperature state of cancer tissue and microwave irradiation output state during microwave irradiation and temperature measurement in another example. FIG. 8... Microwave oscillator as electromagnetic wave generating means, 10... Branch circuit as electromagnetic wave branching means,
12... Coaxial switch as an electromagnetic wave switching mechanism,
22... Main control unit, 24... Applicator, 38
...Temperature sensor as second temperature measuring means, 4
0...Temperature sensor as a first temperature measurement means,
42... Temperature sensor as third temperature measuring means, 44... Cooling mechanism, 46... Living body, DM1...
...Dummy load.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A single electromagnetic wave generating means, an electromagnetic wave branching means for branching the electromagnetic waves outputted from the electromagnetic wave generating means into a plurality of output parts, and a plurality of electromagnetic wave branching means installed corresponding to the plurality of output parts. In the hyperthermia heating device, which has an applicator and a cooling mechanism for cooling the surface of a living body installed in each applicator, electromagnetic waves are transmitted between each of the applicators and each output part of the electromagnetic wave branching means. In addition to being equipped with a switching mechanism, a plurality of main control units are provided to separately drive and control the electromagnetic wave switching mechanism and the cooling mechanism for each applicator, and perform in-vivo heating treatment of the part that is in contact with each of the applicators. a first temperature measuring means for measuring the temperature of the part of the body, a second temperature measuring means for measuring the temperature of the body surface part that each of the applicators comes into contact with, and a space between each of the heating treatment parts and the body surface. each applicator is provided with a third temperature measuring means for measuring the temperature of the intermediate part of the living body, and each of the main controllers further comprises: a first function of increasing or decreasing the cooling capacity of the cooling mechanism; and when the third temperature measuring means detects a temperature equal to or higher than a predetermined temperature, the corresponding electromagnetic wave switching mechanism is separately equipped in advance for absorbing electromagnetic waves. a second control function for switching control to the dummy load side when the temperature is set, and the temperature measured by the first temperature measuring means first becomes equal to or higher than a set value, and at the same time the temperature measured by the second temperature measuring means is set. The third step is to immediately start the heating treatment time if the temperature is below the specified value.
A heating device for hyperthermia that is characterized by having the following functions.