Surgery – Truss – Pad
Patent
1991-10-18
1994-03-22
Jaworski, Francis
Surgery
Truss
Pad
128916, 12866104, A61B 812
Patent
active
052954862
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
The invention is a transesophageal echocardiography device with a flexible ultrasound probe with an attached ultrasound transducer for the generation of multiplanar images of a patients' heart, which is connected to an image processing system via a control and evaluation device.
A transesophageal echocardiography device described in Roy W. Martin et al., An Endoscopic Micromanipulator for Multiplanar Transesophageal Imaging, Ultrasound in Med. and Biol. Vol. 12, Nr. 12, pp. 965-975, 1986 and produces three-dimensional reconstructions of a cardiac ultrasound image by recording a multitude of sectional images with the help of an ultrasound transducer attached to the front of an endoscope. The transducer can be swung horizontally around the longitudinal axis of the endoscope producing a multitude of tomograms whose assigned section planes run diagonal to each other. This affects the geometrical and optical qualities of the image data received, resulting in inferior quality, a small, unfavorably distributed scanning volume. Furthermore, the scans cannot be reproduced, making it impossible to achieve the three-dimensional image quality necessary for comparative studies.
An essay by Michael Schluter et al., Transesophageal Two-Dimensional Echocardiography: Comparison of Ultrasonic and Anatomic Sections, The American Journal of Cardiology, Vol. 53, pp. 1173-1178, 1984, describes a transesophageal echocardiography device which generates horizontal tomograms. Tomographic sections through the heart are generated by moving and turning a gastroscope within the esophagus. The necessity of manually moving the gastroscope--a movement which cannot be reproduced--makes it impossible to generate three-dimensional plastic images from two-dimensional tomograms.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,327,738 describes an endoscopic process and device for ultrasound-B-image scans. The ultrasound transducer is attached to the rigid front part of an otherwise flexible tube. A difficult-to-reproduce re-positioning is required to produce multiplanar tomograms, making exact three-dimensional reconstructions of the scanned organs impossible.
Starting from said technology, the invention's purpose is to create a transesophageal echocardiography device for the generation of reproducible topographic information about the heart and its movements.
The invention solves this task with the help of the following innovations: an ultrasound transducer for scanning a series of parallel section planes of the heart is attached to a sliding rail progressively moved axially along a straight line inside the ultrasound endoscopy device; a temporary memory allows for the storage of at least one tomogram when scanning each section synchronous with the cardiac phases; a main memory for at least one three-dimensional image composed of a series of parallel tomograms is used, whose data input port is connected to the data output port of the temporary memory via one selection option through which the individual tomograms associated with consecutive cardiac cycles of a series of parallel tomograms can only be transferred to the main memory if the cardiac cycles are of the same length; and an advance signal will not move the ultrasound transducer into the next section until the temporary memory data are transferred to the main memory.
The progressive movement of the ultrasound transducer along a straight line leads to the generation of parallel section planes and equally parallel tomograms. The ultrasound transducer is located on a sliding rail in the distal end of the ultrasound endoscopy device (an esophagus probe) and can be moved axially. The esophagus probe is flexible to facilitate insertion into the esophagus in the course of transesophageal echocardiography. However, the distal end is stiff, in order to precisely orient the scanning planes. This is achieved with the help of a multitude of guiding links, which are pulled face to face before scanning the section planes. When stiff, these guiding links links form a straight and stable guide canal in which the sliding rail with t
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Klein Hans-Peter
Wollschlager Helmut
Wollschlager Susanna
Zeiher Andreas
Hughes Michael J.
Jaworski Francis
Manuel George
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