JPH09524A - Ultrasonic probe - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Abstract] [Purpose] Providing an overload release unit that releases this overload when an excessive load is applied to the operation wire within the operation unit.
When the operation wire is in the locked state, the operation wire can be forcibly pulled and the overload can be effectively released, and the operation wire can be easily repaired. [Structure] An operation wire 40 for rotating an ultrasonic transducer 11 comprises an insertion portion side wire 40a wound around a driven rotary pulley 12 and an operation portion side wire 40b wound around a drive pulley 23, and these are loosened. Prevention mechanism 29
Is connected to the cylindrical body 30 in
a is not directly connected to the tubular body 30, but is detachably connected to the fragile fuse wire 41.
Is detachably connected to the tubular body 30. Therefore, when the operation wire 40 is overloaded, the fuse wire 41 is first cut, and the driven rotary pulley 12 and the members attached thereto, the operation portion side wire 40b and the drive pulley 23 around which the operation pulley wire 12 is wound. Protected.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an ultrasonic probe for performing multi-plane electronic scanning, and more particularly to a rotation transmission mechanism for an ultrasonic transducer provided in its insertion portion.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art An ultrasonic probe provided with an ultrasonic transducer at the tip of an insertion portion inserted into a body cavity or the like, which performs so-called multi-plane electronic scanning, is disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 59-22534. Has been done. In this known ultrasonic probe, as shown in FIG. 1, a rotating body R is provided on a tip end main body D of an insertion portion C, and a plurality of ultrasonic transducers P made of piezoelectric ceramic or the like are arranged in a row on the rotating body R. The arrayed ultrasonic transducers T are provided.
By sequentially driving a large number of ultrasonic transducers P with a predetermined time delay, linear or sector electronic scanning is performed over a predetermined range inside the body. Then, by rotating the rotating body R in the direction shown by the arrow in the figure, ultrasonic tomographic images by different scanning lines are obtained. For example, when performing a heart examination through the esophagus, the rotary body R is rotated while the distal end main body D of the insertion portion C is held at a predetermined position of the esophagus, and ultrasonic scanning is performed from various angles. By doing so, the whole image of the heart can be grasped, and if voxel data conversion processing is performed by the image processing means, three-dimensional display is also possible.

If a mechanism for rotating a rotating body equipped with an ultrasonic transducer is provided in the insertion portion, particularly in the wire end portion main body, the diameter of the insertion portion becomes large. It is common to perform the remote control in the operating section connected to each other, and an operating wire is generally provided to transmit the rotational force between the rotary drive mechanism and the rotating body. A drive mechanism for remotely controlling the rotating body is proposed in, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 6-261903. Therefore, regarding the known drive mechanism,
2 shows the overall configuration of the ultrasonic transducer, and FIG.
FIG. 4 shows a cross section of the distal end portion of the insertion portion, and FIG. 4 shows a cross section of the operation portion.

First, in FIG. 2, reference numeral 1 denotes an ultrasonic probe. This ultrasonic probe 1 includes an operating portion 2 and an insertion portion 3
And a cable 4 is pulled out from the operation portion 2, and the tip of the cable 4 has
A connector 5 that is detachably connected to the ultrasonic observation apparatus is provided. The insertion portion 3 has a predetermined length of the flexible portion 3a.
Thus, the angled portion 3b is connected to the flexible portion 3a, and the tip portion main body 3c is sequentially connected to the angled portion 3b.

The tip end main body 3c has a main body casing 10, a chamber 10a is formed in the main body casing 10, and an ultrasonic transducer 11 is mounted in the chamber 10. The ultrasonic transducer 11 has the same configuration as that shown in FIG. 1, and therefore detailed illustration and description thereof will be omitted. The ultrasonic transducer 11 includes a driven rotating pulley 12 as a rotating body.
It is connected to. Here, a backing material 13 is mounted on the driven rotary pulley 12, and the backing material 1
An ultrasonic transducer 11 is mounted on the surface 3.
An acoustic matching layer 14 is laminated on the transmitting / receiving surface of the ultrasonic transducer 11, and an acoustic lens 15 is laminated on the acoustic matching layer 14, and the acoustic lens 15 faces the acoustic window 16 provided in the main body casing 10. I'm out. Acoustic window 1
Reference numeral 6 is fixedly mounted to the main body casing 10 via a seal member 17, so that the chamber 10a is a closed space, and liquid paraffin or the like is enclosed as an ultrasonic transmission medium in the chamber 10a. Has been done. In addition, 18 is a flat cable connected to the ultrasonic transducer 11.

The ultrasonic transducer 11 includes a backing material 13, an acoustic matching layer 14 and an acoustic lens 15,
Ultrasonic unit 1 provided integrally with the driven rotary pulley 12
9, the ultrasonic unit 19 is configured such that the center of the transmitting / receiving surface of the ultrasonic transducer 11 is the center of rotation, and the rotation axis is orthogonal to the transmitting / receiving surface. Then, in order to rotate the ultrasonic unit 19, a pair of operation wires 20, 20 are wound and provided in an annular groove 12a formed in the pulley 12, and their ends are fixed. The pair of operation wires 20 are guided into the angle portion 3b through the pipe 21 and extend from the angle portion 3b through the flexible portion 3a into the operation portion 2. Here, the part of the operation wire 20 from the part led out of the pipe 21 to the inside of the operation part 2 is inserted into a coil sleeve 22 formed by winding a metal wire rod into a close contact coil shape, and the part of the coil sleeve 22. One end is the pipe 21, and the other end is the operation unit 2.
Each is fixedly held inside.

In the operating portion 2, the operating wire 20 is led out of the coil sleeve 22, the tip portion of which is wound around the annular groove 23a of the drive pulley 23, and the end portions thereof are fixed. Has been done. A rotary shaft 24 is connected to the drive pulley 23, and the rotary shaft 24 projects from the housing of the operation portion 2 and an operation knob 25 is connected thereto. Therefore, when the operation knob 25 is rotated with fingers or the like,
As a result of the drive pulley 23 rotating, the operating wire 20 is pushed and pulled, and the driven rotary pulley 12 follows and rotates. Then, in order to detect the rotation angle of the driven rotary pulley 12, the drive pulley 23
A bevel gear 26 is formed on the outer periphery of the bevel gear 26, and a bevel gear 28 connected to an input shaft 27a of an encoder 27 is meshed with the bevel gear 26. Therefore, when the drive pulley 23 rotates, its rotation angle is detected by the encoder 27,
Thereby, the ultrasonic scanning direction is recognized.

By the way, when one operation wire 20 is pulled, the other operation wire 20 is pushed out. At this time, a slack prevention mechanism 29 is connected to prevent the operation wire 20 from slackening. . As shown in FIG. 5, the loosening prevention mechanism 29 is provided with a screw hole 30a and an insertion hole 30b at both ends of a tubular body 30, and inserts the operation wire 20 into the insertion portion side wire 20a and the operation portion side wire 20.
The wire member 20a and the wire member 20b are divided into a screw member 31a and a stopper member 31 respectively.
b is connected. The screw member 31a is the casing 30.
Is screwed into the screw hole 30a. On the other hand, the stopper member 31b is a substantially columnar member having a diameter larger than that of the insertion hole 30b located inside the tubular body 30, and is movable within the tubular body 30. A spring 32 acts on the stopper member 31b in a direction in which the operation portion side wire 20b is pulled into the closed body 30. Accordingly, when the operating wire 20 is pushed out, if the operating wire 20 has an extra length, the stopper member 31b is pushed into the tubular body 30 to absorb the extra length, and the operating wire 20 is absorbed. Prevents it from loosening more than necessary.

[0009]

When the rotating body provided with the ultrasonic unit is rotated, the rotating body and the ultrasonic unit slide with respect to the main body casing, so that sliding resistance is generated at that time, and the operation wire is also operated. Also, when pushed and pulled in the insertion portion, it also slides on the inner surface of the insertion portion, which also has sliding resistance. Of course, if there is resistance to the operation of this operation wire, for example, when bending the angle part,
The inconvenience of the ultrasonic transducer rotating unintentionally disappears. Due to the resistance generated during the normal operation of the operation wire, the operation wire will not be broken or the members constituting the ultrasonic unit will not be damaged.

However, when the operation wire is entangled with other members or caught in the angle portion, the movement of the operation wire is restricted. On the other hand, the operating knob has a large outer diameter so that it can be operated with the lightest force possible. Therefore, when the operation knob is forcibly turned in spite of the movement of the operation wire being restricted, an excessive load acts on the operation wire, which may cause disconnection. In addition, a large stress may act on the driven rotary pulley, the ultrasonic unit, the seal member, etc., and damage them. The disconnection of the operation wire is highly likely to occur in the connecting portion to the driven rotary pulley or the drive pulley or in the insertion portion, particularly in the angle portion, and it is necessary to disassemble the entire ultrasonic probe to repair this disconnection. For example, it requires a fairly large-scale repair. Furthermore, if the driven rotary pulley, ultrasonic unit, sealing member, etc. are damaged, the tip body will be disassembled and repaired, but this repair is not only extremely large-scale, but also the tip body There is a problem that an extremely troublesome situation occurs such as having to rebuild the internal sealing mechanism.

The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and an object of the present invention is to overload an operating wire for rotating an ultrasonic transducer by remote operation when a large load acts on the operating wire. Is to be able to cancel effectively, and to be able to easily repair it.

[0012]

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the present invention prevents an operating wire for rotationally driving a rotating body connected to an ultrasonic transducer from being overloaded. The feature is that the overload releasing portion for releasing is provided in the operation portion.

[0013]

[Operation] When an excessive load is applied to the operation wire to the extent that there is a risk of disconnection of the operation wire or damage to the members constituting the ultrasonic unit, the seal member, etc., the overload release section operates to release this load. To do. Here, the release of the overload is performed by disconnecting the insertion wire side portion of the operation wire from the operation wire side portion wound around the pulley. Since the release of the overload by disconnecting the operation wire is performed inside the operation portion, the operation wire can be easily repaired by opening the housing of the operation portion, that is, the disconnected operation wire can be connected.

Here, the operation wire is provided with a slack prevention mechanism in the operation portion. Therefore, it is advantageous in terms of its configuration to disconnect the operation wire at the slack prevention mechanism portion of the operation wire. . For example, when connecting a portion of the operation wire on the insertion portion side to the slack prevention member, a fragile portion that disconnects when a load greater than a set value acts on the slack prevention member or when connecting the operation wire to the slack prevention member is used. To
It suffices to interpose a separable connecting portion that disconnects the operation wire when a load equal to or more than a set value is applied.

[0015]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. In the following description, members that are the same as or equivalent to those of the above-described conventional technology are assigned the same reference numerals, and illustration and description thereof are omitted.

First, FIG. 6 shows a first embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, reference numeral 40 denotes an operation wire, and the operation wire 40 is provided on the insertion portion 3 side with the coil sleeve 22. Insertion-side wire 40a inserted through
And the operation unit side wire 4 wound around the drive pulley 23.
0b. Further, the operation unit side wire 40b is
The slack prevention mechanism 29 is inserted into the insertion hole 30b of the tubular body 30 and the stopper member 31b is connected to the tip of the insertion hole 30b.

However, the insertion portion side wire 40a is not directly connected to the tubular body 30, but is detachably connected to the fuse wire 41 as a fragile member, and the fuse wire 41 is detachable from the tubular body 30. Are linked to. The connection between the insertion portion side wire 40a and the fuse wire 41 is
The fuse wire 41 includes a screw member 42 and a socket 43 connected to the end of the insertion portion side wire 40 a. The screw member 42 is screwed into the socket 43. Further, at the tip of the fuse wire 41, the cylindrical body 30
A screw member 44 screwed into the screw hole 30a is attached. Therefore, the operation wire 40 includes the insertion portion side wire 40a, the fuse wire 41, and the operation portion side wire 40b.
The fuse wire 41 has a socket 43
And the screw member 42 of the insertion portion side wire 40a, and between the screw member 44 and the screw hole 30a of the tubular body 30 can be separated from the insertion portion side wire 40a and the operation portion side wire 40b, respectively. There is.

The fuse wire 41 is arranged in the operation portion 2, and the insertion portion side wire 40a is inserted into the coil sleeve 22 in the insertion portion 3.
2 is connected to a pipe 45 fixedly provided in the housing of the operation section 2 in the vicinity of the introduction section to the operation section 2. The insertion portion side wire 40a is led out from this pipe 45, and the screw member 42 is connected to the end portion thereof.
Has a larger outer diameter than the inner diameter of the pipe 45, so that the screw member 42 is not pulled into the pipe 45. The operation wire 40 is pushed and pulled in order to rotate the ultrasonic transducer 11, and the pull-out length of the insertion portion side wire 40a from the pipe 45 is a screw member even when the operation wire 40 is pushed out to the maximum extent. The size of 42 is set so as not to contact the pipe 45.

The present embodiment is constructed as described above, and the fuse wire 41 constitutes a part of the operation wire 40.
That is, it is inferior in strength to the insertion portion side wire 40a and the operation portion side wire 40b. When operating the operating knob 25,
The drive pulley 23 rotates, the pair of operation wires 40 are pushed and pulled, and the driven rotary pulley 12 rotates, which changes the scanning direction of the ultrasonic transducer 11, but the strength of the fuse wire 41 is There is no disconnection due to the pulling force necessary for rotating the sound wave transducer 11, the insertion portion side wire 40a and the operation portion side wire 40b in the operation wire 40 are disconnected, and the driven rotary pulley 12 and ultrasonic wave Unit 19
Each member constituting the above, and further, the seal member 17 is disconnected when an excessive load that may cause damage or breakage is applied.

As a result, the ultrasonic transducer 1
1 is rotated, for example, when the insertion portion side wire 40a of the operation wire is caught in the angle portion 3b and cannot be moved, the operation knob 25 is forcibly rotated to make the operation wire 40 strong. When the pulling force is applied, the insertion portion side wire 40a is broken, or the fuse wire 41 is broken before the ultrasonic unit 19 or the like is damaged.
Is no longer transmitted to the insertion portion side wire 40a and the driven rotary pulley 12 around which the insertion portion side wire 40a is wound, and the overload acting on the operation wire 40 is released. Therefore, each member and the member mounted on the driven rotary pulley 12 are protected, and the tension is not applied to the operation portion side wire 40b, so that the operation portion side wire 40b and the operation portion side wire 40b are wound. The drive pulley 23 that is installed is not damaged.

When the fuse wire 41 is broken, it must be replaced. The fuse wire 41 has a screw member 42 and a socket 43 for the insertion portion side wire 40a.
And the screw member 44 and the screw hole 30a of the tubular body 30 are separated from each other, so that they can be easily removed, so that they can be easily replaced. Moreover, the fuse wire 41 is located on the side of the operation portion 2 and the fuse wire 41 is connected to the insertion portion side wire 40a and the operation portion side wire 40.
Since both b are also located inside the operation portion 2, it is necessary to disassemble the housing of the operation portion 2, but it is not necessary to disassemble the insertion portion 3 side. Therefore, the repair can be easily performed by removing the cause of the overload and then connecting a new fuse wire 41.

Next, FIGS. 7 and 8 show a second embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment, the loosening prevention mechanism 50 is constructed as a separable connecting portion, and the operating wire 5 is used.
The insertion-part-side wire 51a that constitutes No. 1 is pulled out from the tubular body 52 that constitutes the slack prevention mechanism 50 when a load greater than a set value acts on the operation wire 51.

That is, the cylindrical body 5 constituting the slack prevention mechanism 50.
Reference numeral 2 is a metal material having a spring property and is formed into a cylindrical shape, and a slit 53 is provided by a predetermined length in the axial direction from the end surface portion on the connection side of the insertion portion side wire 51a.
Further, insertion holes 52a and 52b are formed in both end surfaces of the cylindrical body 52, and a spherical portion 54a having a diameter larger than the diameter of the insertion hole 52a is formed at the end portion of the insertion portion side wire 51a and the operation portion side. A cylindrical stopper 54b having a diameter larger than the diameter of the insertion hole 52b is connected to each end of the wire 51b.
In the operation portion side wire 51b, the stopper portion 54b has the cylindrical body 52.
A spring 55 is inserted between the stopper portion 54b and the end surface of the tubular body 52 so as to be elastic. On the contrary,
The spherical portion 54a connected to the insertion portion side wire 51a also has the cylindrical body 5
Although it is inserted into the inside of the wire 52, since the slit 53 is formed on the insertion hole 52a side of the tubular body 52, the insertion portion side wire 51
When a is pulled with a strong force, the slit 53 expands and the spherical portion 54a moves to the cylindrical body 52, as shown in phantom in FIG.
The wire 51a on the insertion portion side is separated from the tubular body 52 to which the wire 51b on the operation portion side is connected.

In order to adjust the force required for the spherical portion 54a to come out of the tubular body 52, a threaded portion is provided on the outer diameter portion of the tubular body 52, and the threaded portion has an adjusting ring. 56 is screwed together. Therefore, the adjustment ring 56
Is closer to the connecting portion of the insertion portion side wire 51a, the resistance against the slip-out of the spherical portion 54a increases, and when it is displaced in the opposite direction, the resistance when the spherical portion 54a slips out decreases.

Therefore, by appropriately adjusting the position of the adjusting ring 56, even if the load required to rotate the ultrasonic unit 19 is applied, the spherical portion 54a becomes the cylindrical body 52.
The operation wire 51 or the driven rotary pulley 12 to which the operation wire 51 is connected, the drive pulley 23, and the ultrasonic unit 19 mounted on the driven rotary pulley 12 without coming out of the operation wire 51.
The spherical portion 54a is adjusted so as to come out of the cylindrical body 52 when a load is applied to some extent, which may cause wire breakage, damage, or the like. Accordingly, when the operation wire 51 is entangled with or hooked with another member when the operation knob 24 is operated to change the ultrasonic scanning direction, the slit 53 expands and the spherical portion 54a of the spherical portion 54a is opened. It becomes larger than the outer diameter and comes out of the tubular body 52.
As a result, the insertion portion side wire 51a and the operation portion side wire 51b are separated at the portion of the slack prevention mechanism 50, so that the above-mentioned members are protected.

Moreover, in the insertion portion side wire 51a thus divided, the spherical portion 54a can be accommodated in the cylindrical body 52 by forcibly expanding the slit 53, and particularly, the adjusting ring 56. Is moved to the connecting side of the operation portion side wire 51b, the slit 53 can be easily expanded. Further, since the tubular body 52 is provided in the operating portion 2, it is only necessary to disassemble the housing of the operating portion 2,
Repair after the overload is released can be easily performed.

In each of the above-described embodiments, the operation wire is provided with a slack prevention mechanism, and the overload release portion is provided at the slack prevention mechanism. However, the operation wire is prevented from slackening. In the case where the mechanism is not provided, the overload releasing portion including the fuse wire or the separable connecting portion may be separately provided. Also, in order to rotate the driven rotary pulley, 2
Although one operating wire is used, only one operating wire may be provided as long as the driven rotary pulley is configured to be biased to a predetermined position by a spring or the like.

[0028]

As described above, according to the present invention, the operation wire is entangled because the operation wire is entangled when the operation wire receives an excessive load. Even if the operation wire is forcibly pulled when it is in the locked state due to being caught or caught, it is possible to effectively release the overload that acts on the operation wire, and after releasing this overload There is an effect that the repair can be easily performed.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram showing a configuration for performing multi-plane electronic scanning.

FIG. 2 is an overall configuration diagram of an ultrasonic probe according to a conventional technique.

3 is a cross-sectional view of a distal end portion of the insertion portion of FIG.

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view of the operation unit of FIG.

FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view showing a configuration of a slack prevention mechanism.

FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional view of an essential part of the ultrasonic probe showing the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a cross-sectional view of essential parts of an ultrasonic probe showing a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is an external view of a cylinder that constitutes the slack prevention mechanism.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Ultrasonic probe 2 Operation part 3 Insertion part 10 Main body casing 11 Ultrasonic transducer 12 Driven rotary pulley 19 Ultrasonic unit 23 Drive pulley 29,50 Loosening prevention mechanism 29,52 Cylindrical body 40,51 Operation wire 40a, 51a Insertion part side Wire 40b, 51b Operation part side wire 41 Fuse wire 42,44 Screw member 43 Socket 53 Slit 54a Spherical part 54b Stopper 56 Adjustment ring

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Hisashi Nakamura Hisashi Nakamura 1385-1 Shimoishigami, Otawara, Tochigi Stock Company Toshiba Nasu factory (72) Inventor Yasutaka Nagai 1385-1 Shimoishi, Otawara, Tochigi Company Toshiba Nasu Factory

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A rotary body, on which ultrasonic transducers having a large number of ultrasonic transducers arranged in a line are mounted, is provided at a tip of an insertion portion, an operation wire is connected to the rotary body, and the operation wire is inserted. From the control section to the operation section, and attached to the pulley that rotates with the operation knob provided on the operation section. Pushing and pulling the operation wire by operating this operation knob causes the ultrasonic transducer to rotate, and the multi-plane type An ultrasonic probe capable of electronic scanning, wherein an operation wire overload release portion is provided in the operation portion. 2. The ultrasonic probe according to claim 1, wherein the overload releasing portion is provided at a connecting portion of the operation wire to the loosening prevention member. 3. The overload is composed of a wire for insertion side and a wire for operation side, the operation wire is connected between the wires, and is broken by a fragile fuse wire which is broken when a load of a predetermined value or more is applied. The ultrasonic probe according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the releasing portion is configured. 4. The operation wire is composed of a wire on the insertion portion side and a wire on the operation portion side, and the overload is released by a separable connection portion that connects these wires detachably when a load of a predetermined value or more is applied. The ultrasonic probe according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the ultrasonic probe constitutes a part.