JPH0732772B2 - Ultrasonic diagnostic probe support device - Google Patents

Description

Description: TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a support device for a probe used in an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus, and particularly to an ultrasonic tomographic image of the head, heart, abdomen or the like of a specific organ, tumor, The present invention relates to a probe support device for recording and diagnosing blood flow and the like while clarifying the three-dimensional positional relationship in a living body.

[Conventional technology]

The ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus is used for diagnosis by obtaining a tomographic image of a soft tissue of a living body, and can be widely applied from the head to the toes of the human body, and a probe is manually attached to the site to be inspected. A tomographic image is obtained by applying it, and it is used for recording diagnosis.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] A probe is applied to the vicinity of a region to be inspected, tomographic images are sequentially obtained while manually moving the probe, and when observing this in real time, an anatomical preliminary With knowledge, it is possible to imagine the three-dimensional organization of biological tissue in the examiner's head. However, when the recorded tomographic image is to be reexamined later, it is not possible to accurately know which part of the subject the tomographic image is, and the recorded three-dimensional images show the three-dimensional image of the living body. It was impossible to know the exact composition. For this reason, the obtained ultrasonic tomographic image is a detailed tomographic image in which the position of the cutting plane is relatively clear by, for example, an X-ray CT image, a nuclear magnetic resonance tomography device (MRI), or a radioisotope imaging device (RI). It was extremely difficult to obtain such correspondence.

Further, the region of the subject visualized by the ultrasonic tomographic image is limited, and for example, the abdomen cannot be observed by the tomographic image along the height direction. As a solution to this, a plurality of tomographic images are obtained while mechanically moving the probe in a direction orthogonal to the tomographic plane, and the tomographic images are stored in a memory,
An attempt to reconstruct a tomographic image in an arbitrary direction based on a stored image signal is known (as one example, JP-A-56-70757).
(See the official gazette). However, when the method of mechanically setting the position of the probe is used as described above, the irradiation direction of the ultrasonic beam to the living tissue is fixed. Sound waves are diffracted and an image with sufficient image quality and resolution cannot be obtained.

As described above, the conventional device cannot accurately know the position and the tilt angle of the scanning surface of the probe with respect to the object, and when the position of the probe is mechanically set with respect to the object, the scanning surface is It had the drawback of being fixed.

[Means for Solving the Problems]

In order to solve the above problems, the present invention solves the above problems by manually setting the scanning surface of the probe to an arbitrary position of the subject, the tilt angle, and determining the tomographic image plane, and the position obtained with respect to the anatomical feature point, A plurality of movable members capable of determining the relative positions of a plurality of tomographic images having different tilt angles and capable of setting the scanning surface of the ultrasonic probe at any position of the subject at any angle. A probe supporting means composed of, a detecting means for detecting the displacement amount of each movable member constituting the probe supporting means when the ultrasonic probe is set on the subject, and the ultrasonic probe being set on the subject to a desired value. When a tomographic image is obtained, the tomographic image plane is determined by calculating the scanning surface position and the tilt angle of the ultrasonic probe based on the detection signal of the detection means, and the reference coordinate system with this plane as the reference plane is set, Ultrasound set thereafter Characterized in that a scanning plane signal processing means a tomographic image plane calculated from the scan plane position and inclination of the lobes including coordinate transformation means for displaying by said reference coordinate system.

[Work]

The scanning plane of the ultrasonic probe can be set at an arbitrary position on the subject with an arbitrary tilt angle, and the position and tilt angle of the scanning surface can be calculated from the displacement amount of the probe supporting means to determine the tomographic image plane. Further, a reference coordinate system is set with one preliminarily taken tomographic image plane as a reference plane, and the tomographic image planes photographed thereafter are displayed by the reference coordinate system, so that the relative position with respect to the reference tomographic image plane is set. You can know.

〔Example〕

 Examples of the present invention will be described below.

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an overall configuration of a probe supporting apparatus of the present invention, 1 is an examination table, 2 is a subject, 3 is a retainer for fixing the subject to the examination table, and depending on a region to be examined. Use a suitable structure. Reference numeral 4 denotes a probe supporting arm, one end of which is attached to the inspection table 1 and a probe 5 is attached to the tip thereof. Reference numeral 6 denotes a scanning plane signal processing device for calculating the position and inclination of the scanning plane of the probe with respect to the subject from the rotation angle of each arm constituting the probe supporting arm 3 and the length of the arm, which is composed of a microprocessor. It Reference numeral 7 is a known ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus, and 8 is a display recording apparatus. A known mechanical scanning type or electronic scanning type probe 5 can be used, and either a sector scan type or a linear scan type can be used.

Next, the structure of the probe support arm 4 will be described. Here, the probe support arm 4 is a multi-joint arm having 6 degrees of freedom so that the tip of the probe 5, that is, the origin of the scanning plane can be set at any position of the subject with any tilt angle. The configuration may be such that the degree of freedom is further increased for further improvement. FIG. 2 shows the structure, which is composed of arms 11, 13, 15, 17 and joints 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 18 which rotatably connect these arms. The joint 10 is provided at a mounting point O on a bed or the like, and the mounting point O is the origin of a three-dimensional primitive coordinate system indicating the probe tip position and tilt angle. The arm 11 is mounted by a joint 10 so as to be rotatable in the XY plane P about the Z axis. The joint 12 is provided at the tip of the arm 11 and has a rotation axis orthogonal to the rotation axis of the joint 11, and the arm 13 has a plane Q including a line OA connecting the point O and the center point A of the joint 12 and the Z axis.
It is mounted rotatably within a (plane orthogonal to the plane P). The joint 14 is provided at the tip of the arm 13, has a rotation axis orthogonal to the rotation axis of the joint 12, and the arm 15 has a plane R orthogonal to the plane Q.
It is mounted so that it can rotate freely.

The joint 16 is a joint that is rotatable around the axis of the arm 15, and a joint 18 that rotatably supports a shaft 17 that is orthogonal to the axis of the arm 15 is attached to the distal end portion. The shaft 17 is provided with an extension 17a orthogonal to its axial direction, the extension 17a is provided with a joint 19 rotatable about its axis, and a probe support 20 is provided at one end thereof. There is.

Although not shown in each of the joints 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, and 19, the angle at which the rotation angle of each joint is electrically detected and the detected angle signal is output to the scanning plane signal processing device described later. Detection encoders E _{1 to} E ₆ are provided.

As is apparent from the above configuration, the joints 16, 18, and 19 constitute a joint that can freely rotate about three axes intersecting at the point C, and the probe can be set to an arbitrary tilt angle at the point C. It is possible. Also, arms 11, 13, 15 and joint 1
The points 0, 12, and 14 can set the point C to an arbitrary position with respect to the origin O.

Here, the position of the scanning surface of the probe is a position occupied by the scanning surface origin of the tip portion of the probe in the three-dimensional coordinate space, and the tilt angle is the center line of the scanning surface of the scanning surface in the third order. The angle formed with the X-axis, Y-axis, and Z-axis, which are the original coordinate axes.

The scanning plane signal processing device will be described with reference to FIG. This device calculates the position and tilt angle of the scanning plane of the probe attached to the tip of the probe support arm, and first sets the reference coordinate system based on the tomographic image plane showing the anatomical features of the subject. A coordinate exchange calculation is performed so that the calculated position and tilt angle of the scanning plane are displayed by the reference coordinates.
Therefore, the joints 10, 12, 14, 16, 16 of the probe supporting arm 4 are connected to the input ports of the microprocessor that constitutes the device 6.
Output signals from the angle detection encoders E _{1 to} E ₆ provided on 18, 19 are input, and a switch SW ₁ for instructing that a preliminary tomographic image is to be set for setting the reference coordinate system and sequential shooting When the desired tomographic image is obtained by observing the prepared preliminary tomographic image, the switch SW ₂ for instructing the setting of the reference coordinate system using the tomographic image as the reference plane of the reference coordinate system is connected, and the instruction is given by the switch ON. A signal is input. Further, a signal indicating the set position and tilt angle of the scanning surface of the probe is output from the output port of the microprocessor to the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus.

Next, the operation will be described with reference to FIG.
The operator sets the switch SW ₁ to ON in order to set the reference coordinate system based on the tomographic image plane showing the anatomical features of the subject.
Then, the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus is activated to start preliminary imaging of a tomographic image. Tomographic image showing desired anatomical feature m ₀
When P ₀ is obtained, switch SW ₂ is turned ON. As a result, the position and tilt angle of the scanning surface of the probe on the three-dimensional primitive coordinates arbitrarily set when the probe supporting device is assembled are the outputs of the angle detection encoder and the known arms 11 and 13 forming the supporting arm 4. It is calculated from the lengths of 15, 15, and 17. In addition,
When the probe is attached to the probe support device, the tilt angle of the scanning surface is set to a predetermined value by aligning the scanning surface with the reference surface of the primitive coordinate system, for example, the XY axis plane.

Then, with the probe tip position, that is, the center point S ₀ of the fan-shaped surface forming the scanning surface as the origin, the scanning direction center line 1 of the scanning surface is set to
The axis that passes through the axis and the origin and is orthogonal to the X axis on the scanning plane is the Y axis, the axis that passes through the origin and is orthogonal to the X axis and the Y axis is the Z axis, and the X-Y axis plane is the reference plane (this is the same as the scanning plane). The three-dimensional reference coordinate system is set to "match" (see FIGS. 1 and 5). A coordinate exchange parameter for converting the original coordinate system to the reference coordinate system is calculated, and is used for the process of converting the position and tilt angle of the scanning surface of the probe set thereafter to the reference coordinate value.

Now, since the tomographic image P ₀ showing the anatomical characteristic portion m ₀ of the subject is obtained and the coordinate conversion parameters are calculated, the switch SW
Set ₁ to OFF and move to the imaging of diagnostic tomographic images. To the subject, S ₁ position of the tip of the probe with the desired position and inclination
Set to. When the tomographic image P ₁ is photographed, an image of the characteristic portion m ₁ corresponding to the anatomical characteristic portion m ₀ of the subject found on the preliminary tomographic image P ₀ previously photographed is found. The relative position between the characteristic features m ₀ and m ₁ is the same as the relationship between the tomographic image planes P ₀ and P _1, and the anatomy can be obtained by obtaining the position and tilt angle of the scanning plane of the probe at S ₁ in the reference coordinate system. Characteristic part m ₀ and
You can know the relative position to m ₁ .

As the tomographic image plane showing the anatomical features, for example, in the case of the heart, it is the left ventricular long-axis image seen from the apex of the heart, in the APRO plane, and in the case of the liver, the sagittal plane tomographic image is the gastric body, pancreatic body and left There is a visible image of the hepatic vein, and a vertical cross-sectional image of the kidney.

Also, when continuously capturing tomographic images while changing the position and tilt angle of the probe, the internal state of the tissue can be continuously observed. At this time, the reference coordinates output from the scanning plane signal output signal are used. Change in the position and inclination of the scanning surface of the probe above, for example, when the position moves 0.5 mm or more in any of X, Y, and Z directions, and when it changes by 1 degree or more, the movement and change are detected. If the ultrasonic diagnostic device is controlled to automatically take a tomographic image by doing so, not only can observation be facilitated, but it is also possible to know the size of a specific tissue, such as a tumor, or the positional relationship with surrounding tissues. it can.

FIG. 4 is a flow chart showing an outline of arithmetic processing in the scanning plane signal processing apparatus.

After the initial setting (step P1), it is determined whether or not the preliminary tomographic image for setting the reference coordinate system is taken (step P1).
2). These are performed by determining whether or not the switch SW ₁ (see FIG. 3), which is provided outside and instructs to capture a preliminary tomographic image, is ON. If a preliminary tomographic image is taken, a switch SW operated when a tomographic image showing a desired anatomical feature is obtained.
₂ The outputs of the angle detection encoders E _{1 to} E ₆ are read in response to the read command issued by (see FIG. 3) (step P3).
The position and tilt angle of the scanning surface of the probe on the original coordinates are determined from the read encoder output and the length of the arm constituting the supporting arm having a known length (step P4). The reference coordinate system is set (step P5), and the coordinate conversion parameters are calculated (step P6). If it is determined in step P2 that the preliminary tomographic image is not captured, the process proceeds to step P7 to determine whether or not the tomographic image is captured for diagnosis. If the tomographic image is not captured, the process proceeds to step P11.If the tomographic image is captured, the probe is set to the desired position of the subject and the tilt angle, and when the imaging start signal is output from the diagnostic device, the encoder output is changed. Read in (step P8).

The position and tilt angle of the scanning plane of the probe on the reference coordinate system set in Step P5 are calculated based on the coordinate conversion parameters calculated in Step P6 (Step P9), and the scanning plane signal is output (Step P10). When it is determined that the work is completed (step P11), if not completed, the process returns to step P2.

Although a multi-joint arm is used as the probe support arm in the above embodiment, a support having exactly the same function can be constructed by combining an orthogonal sliding member and rotating member instead of this, It is a matter that can be arbitrarily designed according to

〔The invention's effect〕

As described above, according to the present invention, when performing ultrasonic diagnosis, the position and the tilt angle of the scanning surface of the probe can be arbitrarily set with respect to the subject and can be displayed on the preliminary tomographic image. Since the position direction of the probe at the time of diagnosis can be determined with reference to the tomographic image plane showing the anatomical characteristics of the subject, which part of the subject is taken and from which direction the image was taken Moreover, the size of a specific portion can be accurately known from the interval between the tomographic image planes. In addition, the imaged tomographic image and another diagnostic device such as X-ray CT, M
It becomes easy to match the position with the tomographic image obtained by RI, RI, etc.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the overall structure of a probe supporting device of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the structure of a supporting arm, and FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the relationship between a scanning surface signal processing device and its peripheral devices. FIG. 4 is a flow chart showing the outline of the signal processing in the scanning plane signal processing apparatus, and FIG. 5 is a diagram for explaining the relationship between the preliminary preliminary tomographic image plane and the diagnostic tomographic image plane. 1: inspection table, 2: subject, 3: presser foot, 4: probe support arm, 5: probe, 6: scanning plane signal processing device.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A probe supporting means comprising a plurality of movable members capable of setting a scanning surface of an ultrasonic probe at an arbitrary position on a subject at an arbitrary angle, and probe support when the ultrasonic probe is set on the subject. When a desired tomographic image is obtained by setting the ultrasonic probe on the subject as the detecting means for detecting the displacement amount of each movable member constituting the means, the ultrasonic probe scans based on the detection signal of the detecting means. The plane position and tilt angle are calculated to determine the tomographic image plane,
A scanning plane signal including a coordinate conversion means for setting a reference coordinate system with this plane as a reference plane and displaying a tomographic image plane calculated from the scanning plane position and the tilt angle of the ultrasonic probe set thereafter by the reference coordinate system. A probe supporting device for ultrasonic diagnosis, comprising: a processing means.