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Description  |
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BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to an ultrasound applicator for diagnosis; more
specifically it relates to a manually operated ultrasound applicator
suitable for examining internal organs and cavities of the human body,
which applicator incorporates a transducer head, composed of a plurality
of transducer elements built into an elongated, rigid housing having an
scanning surface designed for placement onto the body area to be examined.
Ultrasound applicators of this type conventionally are designed for
scanning internal organs of the human body from the outside through the
skin, however it would be desirable to provide an ultrasound applicator
designed for diagnosis of tissues or organs located in cavities of the
human body which until now have been physically examined by hand. Physical
examination has its limitations, it would be desirable to furnish a tool
for medical examination providing precise readings and suitable for
examining cavities in addition to or instead of physical examination.
The published German Patent Application No. 2,950,203, discloses an
endoscope constituting an eye piece, a flexible tube, including bendable
connecting portion and a cylinder-shaped front portion. A light conductor
and control cables are arranged within the flexible tube and the front
portion bears a built-in ultrasound transducer. The known endoscope is not
very well adapted for use with examination of cavities because it cannot
be sufficiently sterilized due to its sensitive optical system. In
addition, the design of the bendable connecting portion renders the known
endoscope applicable only for procedures requiring just relatively small
bending angles. Therefore, possible applications of the known apparatus
are rather limited.
European Patent Application No. 0,039,045 discloses another endoscope
comprising a remotely controlled bendable front portion and two ultrasound
transducers arranged therein. Similar to the mentioned endoscope, again
the front portion of this endoscope has a relatively small bending angle,
which most likely amounts to not more than a few degrees. The manipulation
mechanism providing remote control and installed in the endoscope's
interior is rather bulky, therefore the endoscope can only be applied to
areas of sufficient dimensions.
A medical ultrasound testing probe is disclosed in the specification of
German Utility Model No. 6,942,159, incorporating a handle at one end of a
flexible tube and an ultrasound converter arranged at the other end. It is
not possible to bend the ultrasound converter with respect to the adjacent
end of the tube, which limits the use of the testing probe for examination
of internal organs.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is, therefore, a main object of the present invention to provide for an
improved ultrasound applicator suitable for a variety of applications in
examining cavities of the human body.
It is another object of the present invention to provide for a manually
operated ultrasound applicator having small dimensions suitable for easy
handling when utilized in such applications.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide for a simple,
reliable testing tool which allows for examining of parts of the human
body which until now are physically touched and examined by hand.
These objects, as well as other objects which will become apparent from the
description which follows, are achieved by a manually operated ultrasound
applicator for scanning of tissues and organs located in cavities of the
body, the applicator including an ultrasound transducer, and a signal
connection cord attached to said transducer head and adapted to be
connected to an image signal processing device, and comprising means for
guiding the transducer head like an integral appendage of an operator's
finger.
The main advantage of this design in accordance with the present invention
is that the transducer head can be adjusted in a simple manner by hand to
suit any desired position in a wide range. This allows for any desired
placement of the ultrasound applicator with respect to internal organs to
be examined, at the back, front or side walls of such organ to be scanned.
This tool is almost as capable of movement in any direction as a finger of
the feeling hand of a surgeon with the extended scanning capability of a
reliable scientific tool. The design renders it possible to make full use
of the entire scanning surface, that is to say even examinations at large
depths in cavities of the human body are made possible which were
previously not possible due to small spatial expansions of the area to be
examined or due to the depth of such areas which could not be reached by
physical touching.
For a full understanding of the present invention, of further advantages
and details, reference should now be made to the following description of
preferred embodiments given in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 shows schematically a side view of an ultrasound applicator designed
according to the present invention for attachment to a finger;
FIG. 2 shows a sectional view of the applicator shown in FIG. 1 taken along
line II--II;
FIG. 3 shows a partial sectional view illustrating a detail of the
applicator shown in FIG. 1 and referenced by III;
FIG. 4 shows a side view of another embodiment of the ultrasound applicator
incorporating several finger molds for a firm grip;
FIG. 5 represents a schematic illustrating a possible application of an
ultrasound applicator according to the present invention for examining of
internal cavities of the human body; and
FIG. 6 shows another embodiment of the present invention, i.e. an
applicator having a grip member removably attached thereto.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
FIG. 1 shows an ultrasound applicator or a transducer head 1 having an
applicator housing 2. The housing 2 has a top surface and a bottom
surface, the latter being a scanning surface 3.
Details of this scanning surface are illustrated in the sectional view of
FIG. 3 representing an enlarged section designated by reference III of
FIG. 1. The ultrasound array is provided with a plurality of transducer
elements 4 arranged adjacent to scanning surface 3. These transducer
elements 4 mounted in the housing 2 are finely segmented. A plurality
(here, seven neighboring ones, but this is merely exemplary) of respective
ones of these segmented transducer elements 4, are grouped together by a
common electrical contact to form an element group 5. A total of 48 groups
may be provided. Contact flags 6 of a contact comb each are used for
contacting a respective group 5 and are embedded on a support member 7
also bearing the ultrasound transducer elements 4. The support member 7
may be composed of an epoxy resin having particles of oxidized tungsten
powder implanted therein. A matching layer 8 for the transducer elements 4
forms the bottom surface, i.e. the scanning surface 3 of the housing 2,
and may also be made of epoxy resin. The design concept of such an
ultrasound transducer array comprising fine segmented transducer elements
is known to those skilled in the art and is disclosed in more detail in
U.S. Pat. No. 4,305,014; further detailed description is therefore deemed
not to be necessary. Scanning surface 3 can vary in length depending upon
the intended applications. In practice, the length of scanning surface 3
may be 3 cm.
A signal connection cord 10 is attached to the described sensor array. The
arrangement of signal connection cord 10 enables a nearly tractionless
trailing in any scanning direction selected for the ultrasound applicator.
This is achieved by designing this multi-wire cable of a multi-strip line
bent to form a sickle shaped cross-section, which allows for placement of
a finger and can easily be held in the palm of the hand of the examining
person. The connection cord 10 provides a means to connect the ultrasound
applicator to any conventional image processing and display device (not
shown). A more detailed description of such device is not deemed to be
necessary, since it forms no part of the present invention and a variety
of devices which may be utilized for displaying scanning results is known
to those skilled in the art.
FIGS. 1 and 2 illustrate, furthermore, a recess 9 arranged in the top
surface of the housing 2. FIG. 1 depicts schematically how the ultrasound
applicator can be applied to a finger, shown in broken lines. FIG. 2 is a
cross-sectional view of the transducer 1 taken along line II . . . II.
This sectional view represents in particular the concave depression
provided for that purpose and forming a finger mold. In this manner the
design of the housing 2 is well suited for a firm placement of a finger of
the examining person which allows for reliable scanning examinations to be
performed with the ultrasound applicator 1 when applied to the finger.
In order to position the ultrasound applicator 1 at the finger of an
examining person, additionally a yoke 46 is provided which may be composed
of just an elastic strip. As an alternative, a finger cot made of material
pervious to ultrasound-waves, i.e. latex, may be utilized, which cot is
slipped over the transducer 1 positioned on the finger.
FIG. 4 represents another embodiment of an ultrasound applicator
constituting a transducer 11 including a housing 12 and a scanning surface
13. In the top surface there are arranged three finger molds 17, 18, 19
which are individually cut into the top surface to support the guiding
finger of the examining person at various distances. In this case,
connection cord 20 attached to transducer member 11 with conventional
traction support is provided in the form of a round cable.
The ultrasound applicators described above in conjunction with FIGS. 1
through 4 are especially designed for use with urological and
gynecological examination previously performed only by manual examination.
During these procedures, the tissues forming the passage wall of the
rectum, the urethra and vagina, respectively are conventionally touched
and felt with the index finger. An application of the arrangement in
accordance with the present invention is schematically illustrated in FIG.
5. The body region identified by numeral 24 includes a passage way 25. The
hand of the examining person wears a flexible glove 26 made of material
pervious to ultrasound waves which material can be latex or any similar
material. The ultrasound applicator 21 and a portion of its connection
cable 30 are also covered by the glove 26. Thereby, a scanning procedure
is performed, which will result in much more precise diagnosis due to the
generated ultrasound image of the region under examination.
The embodiment shown in FIG. 4 comprises several finger molds for reaching
various depths. Nevertheless, there are applications when an area to be
examined can no longer be reached by a finger. To this reason, an
extension grip can be provided as manipulative support device, as
represented by FIG. 6. A spring like bent metal strip 35 is removably
attached to housing 32 of the transducer 31. The entire ultrasound
applicator including transducer 31, metal strip 35, and connection cable
40 are enveloped by a flexible cover 36 which is pervious to ultrasound
waves and may be made of latex. Thereby, a penlike handle for ultrasound
applicator 31 is formed, wherein the cover warrants the sterility of the
entire instrument. Metal strip 35 can be of any predetermined geometrical
design, i.e. it can be offset to provide certain attachment positions. An
end of metal strip 35 can be inserted into or clamped to applicator
housing 32 to facilitate easy replacement. In summary, the instrument
described above enables even scanning of previously inaccesible body
regions. As a result, diagnosis may be had of areas which were previously
not accessible for a careful investigation by physical examination due to
the depth of the location of the internal organ or tissue under
examination.
There have thus been shown and described different embodiments of a novel
hand held ultrasound applicator which fulfills all the objects and
advantages sought therefor. Many changes, modifications, variations and
other uses and applications of the subject invention will, however, become
apparent to those skilled in the art after considering the specification
and the accompanying drawings, which disclose preferred embodiments
thereof. The described application with respect to an examination of a
cavity of the human body does not limit the variety of possible
applications, but presents only an appropriate example for investigating
internal organs or other parts of the human body to be examined by means
of such an ultrasound applicator. All changes, modifications, variations
and other uses and applications which do not depart from the spirit and
scope of the invention are deemed to be covered by the invention which is
limited only by the claim which follow.
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