EP0351610A2
Expired / Lapsed
EP
⏱️ 0.0 years remaining
Ultrasonic apparatus for therapeutical use
Assignee: Hitachi Ltd
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Filing: 1989-06-30
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Granted: —
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Expires: 2009-06-30
Abstract
Abstract An ultrasonic apparatus for thereapeutical use, especially for remedying a malignant tumor, activates a drug at a desired local portion inside of a living body by sequentially irradiating a plurality kinds of convergent ultrasonic waves having different focal positions of different acoustic pressure distribution shapes but having a mutually overlapping focal zone and by switching them within a short period. The drug is activated as a promotor for an ultrasonic therapeutical effect through continuous generation and rupture of cavitation caused by the irradiated and switched ultrasonic waves.
Inventors
- 👤 Shinichiro Umemura
- 👤 Nagahiko Yumita
- 👤 Koshiro Umemura
- 👤 Kageyoshi Katakura
Bibliographic Details
Application Number
—
Jurisdiction
EP
Data Source
google_patents
Last Synchronized
2026-10-25 21:03
CPC Classifications
A; A61; A61M; A61M37/00; A61M37/0092; A61N; A61N7/00; A61N7/02; A61B; A61B17/00; A61B17/22; A61B17/22004; A61B2017/22005; A61B2017/22007; A61B2017/22008; A61B2017/22027; A61B2017/22028; A61B2017/22082; A61B2017/22088; A61N2007/0056; A61N2007/006; A61N2007/0078; A61N2007/0086; A61N2007/0095; A61N2007/027; G; G01; G01S; G01S15/00; G01S15/88; G01S15/89; G01S15/8906; G01S15/899
Claims Analysis
Total Claims: 32
Claim 1
Independent Claim
51 words
An ultrasonic apparatus for therapeutical use including means for interruptedly irradiating a converged ultrasonic wave to a desired portion inside a living body from its surface in order to activate locally the anti-tumor effect of a photosensitizing material or a material having a chelate forming function injected into the living body.
Claim 2
Dependent Claim
51 words
An ultrasonic apparatus for therapeutical use including means for interruptedly irradiating a converged ultrasonic wave to a desired portion inside a living body from its surface in order to activate locally the anti-tumor effect of a photosensitizing material or a material having a chelate forming function injected into the living body.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim
28 words
An ultrasonic apparatus for therapeutical use according to claim 1, wherein the duration time of said ultrasonic wave is longer than 0.01 msec but shorter than 10 msec.
Claim 4
Dependent Claim
61 words
An ultrasonic apparatus for therapeutical use including means for irradiating a plurality of kinds of convergent ultrasonic waves having different focal positions of different acoustic pressure distribution shapes but having a mutually overlapping focal zone while switching them within a short period into a living body from its surface, in order to activate locally a drug injected into the living body.
Claim 5
Dependent Claim
61 words
An ultrasonic apparatus for therapeutical use including means for irradiating a plurality of kinds of convergent ultrasonic waves having different focal positions of different acoustic pressure distribution shapes but having a mutually overlapping focal zone while switching them within a short period into a living body from its surface, in order to activate locally a drug injected into the living body.
Claim 6
Dependent Claim
33 words
An ultrasonic apparatus for therapeutical use according to claim 3, wherein the duration time of irradiation by one kind of convergent ultrasonic wave is longer than 0.01 msec but shorter than 10 msec.
Claim 7
Dependent Claim
65 words
An ultrasonic apparatus for therapeutical use comprising: transducer means consisting of a plurality of arranged elements; and driving means for using said elements while switching alternately a plurality of sets of said elements and driving said transducer means so that a plurality of convergent ultrasonic waves having mutually overlapping focal zones but having mutually different acoustic pressure shape distributions are irradiated sequentially while being switched.
Claim 8
Dependent Claim
65 words
An ultrasonic apparatus for therapeutical use comprising: transducer means consisting of a plurality of arranged elements; and driving means for using said elements while switching alternately a plurality of sets of said elements and driving said transducer means so that a plurality of convergent ultrasonic waves having mutually overlapping focal zones but having mutually different acoustic pressure shape distributions are irradiated sequentially while being switched.
Claim 9
Dependent Claim
52 words
An ultrasonic apparatus for therapeutical use according to claim 5, wherein the duration time of the ultrasonic wave irradiation from one of said transducers is shorter than 0.1 msec and the duration time of the irradiation of said ultrasonic wave in said focal zones is longer than said duration time described above.
Claim 10
Dependent Claim
97 words
An ultrasonic apparatus for therapeutical use comprising: transducer means consisting of a plurality of arranged elements; driving means for driving said transducer means so that a first convergent ultrasonic wave is irradiated into a living body by use of at least part of said transducer means; position detection means for detecting the position of the cavitation generated by said first convergent ultrasonic wave inside said living body; and control means for switching said driving means in order to generate a second convergent ultrasonic wave having an acoustic pressure maximum point at the position of the detected cavitation.
Claim 11
Dependent Claim
97 words
An ultrasonic apparatus for therapeutical use comprising: transducer means consisting of a plurality of arranged elements; driving means for driving said transducer means so that a first convergent ultrasonic wave is irradiated into a living body by use of at least part of said transducer means; position detection means for detecting the position of the cavitation generated by said first convergent ultrasonic wave inside said living body; and control means for switching said driving means in order to generate a second convergent ultrasonic wave having an acoustic pressure maximum point at the position of the detected cavitation.
Claim 12
Dependent Claim
32 words
An ultrasonic apparatus for therapeutical use according to claim 7, wherein the frequency of said second ultrasonic wave is higher than the frequency of said first ultrasonic wave for generating said cavitation.
Claim 13
Dependent Claim
40 words
An ultrasonic wave for therapeutical use according to claim 7, wherein said position detection means is a ultrasonic wave receiver for receiving the fractional harmonic components or higher harmonic components of said first ultrasonic wave and detecting the irradiation position.
Claim 14
Dependent Claim
34 words
An ultrasonic apparatus for therapeutical use according to claim 9, wherein the center frequency of said ultrasonic wave receiver for detecting the cavitation is at least twice the frequency of said first ultrasonic wave.
Claim 15
Dependent Claim
35 words
An ultrasonic apparatus for therapeutical use according to claim 9, wherein the center frequency of said ultrasonic wave receiver for detecting the cavitation is up to 1/2 times the frequency of said first ultrasonic wave.
Claim 16
Dependent Claim
68 words
An ultrasonic apparatus for therapeutical use according to claim 1, which further includes ultrasonic wave echo imaging means and means for superposing a two- or three-dimensional echo image of the object of irradiation, an irradiation energy distribution diagram of a single or a plurality of kinds of therapeutical acoustic fields and the positions of the detected cavitation at the corresponding positions, and displaying them in mutually different colors.
Claim 17
Dependent Claim
29 words
An ultrasonic apparatus for therapeutical use according to claim 1, which includes a transducer consisting of a piezoelectric ceramics and an acoustic matching layer made of a light metal.
Claim 18
Dependent Claim
56 words
An ultrasonic apparatus for therapeutical use according to claim 13, which includes an acoustic matching layer whose surface on the ultrasonic wave irradiation side is a concave forming part of a spherical surface or a cylindrical surface, and a piezoelectric ceramic element is bonded to a polished plane of the back of said acoustic matching layer.
Claim 19
Dependent Claim
79 words
An ultrasonic apparatus for therapeutical use comprising: means for inputting information on the dose of a drug exhibiting an anti-tumor effect in a living body by the irradiation of a ultrasonic wave; means for calculating drug concentrations at the object region of therapy and each portion around said object region receiving the irradiation energy of the ultrasonic wave as the function of time on the basis of said information; and means for displaying each of said concentration thus calculated.
Claim 20
Dependent Claim
79 words
An ultrasonic apparatus for therapeutical use comprising: means for inputting information on the dose of a drug exhibiting an anti-tumor effect in a living body by the irradiation of a ultrasonic wave; means for calculating drug concentrations at the object region of therapy and each portion around said object region receiving the irradiation energy of the ultrasonic wave as the function of time on the basis of said information; and means for displaying each of said concentration thus calculated.
Claim 21
Dependent Claim
59 words
An ultrasonic apparatus for therapeutical use according to claim 15, which includes means for receiving information on the drug name, the dose time, the dosage, the dosing method, the name, weight, length, age and blood protein concentration of a patient, the name of organ of the object region and its portion, and the kind of tumor, from a keyboard.
Claim 22
Dependent Claim
38 words
An ultrasonic apparatus for therapeutical use according to calim 16, which includes means for measuring the drip dosage of the drug on a real time basis and means for calculating the drug concentration on the real time basis.
Claim 23
Dependent Claim
38 words
An ultrasonic apparatus for therapeutical use according to calim 16, which includes means for measuring the drip dosage of the drug on a real time basis and means for calculating the drug concentration on the real time basis.
Claim 24
Dependent Claim
33 words
An ultrasonic apparatus for therapeutical use according to claim 17, which includes means for pressure-feeding a drip drug and means for controlling the pressure-feed quantity in accordance with the drug concentration thus calculated.
Claim 25
Dependent Claim
40 words
An ultrasonic apparatus for therapeutical use according to claim 18, which includes means for measuring the total blood flow rate or local blood flow rate of said patinet and means for calculating the drug concentration on a real time basis.
Claim 26
Dependent Claim
31 words
An promoter for an ultrasonic therapeutical effect consisting primarily of a photosensitizing drug exhibiting an anti-tumor activity inside a living body by the irradiation of a ultrasonic wave or its derivatives.
Claim 27
Dependent Claim
31 words
An promoter for an ultrasonic therapeutical effect consisting primarily of a photosensitizing drug exhibiting an anti-tumor activity inside a living body by the irradiation of a ultrasonic wave or its derivatives.
Claim 28
Dependent Claim
23 words
A promoter for an ultrasonic therapeutical effect according to claim 20, wherein said photosensitizing drug is a chelate forming compound or its derivatives.
Claim 29
Dependent Claim
19 words
A promoter for an ultrasonic therapeutical effect according to claim 20, wherein said photosensitizing drug is a porphyrin compound.
Claim 30
Dependent Claim
22 words
A promoter for an ultrasonic therapeutical effect according to claim 20, wherein said photosensitizing drug is an alkylating agent or its derivatives.
Claim 31
Dependent Claim
32 words
A promoter for an ultrasonic therapeutical effect consisting primarily of an ascorbic acid salt or its derivatives exhibiting an anti-tumor effect inside a living body by the irradiation of a ultrasonic wave.
Claim 32
Dependent Claim
32 words
A promoter for an ultrasonic therapeutical effect consisting primarily of an ascorbic acid salt or its derivatives exhibiting an anti-tumor effect inside a living body by the irradiation of a ultrasonic wave.
References Cited (Backward Citations)
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