Diagnosis apparatus and the determination of tissue structure and quality

• US 4,543,959 A
• Filed: 01/25/1985
• Issued: 10/01/1985
• Est. Priority Date: 06/04/1981
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Instrumentarium Corporation
• Original Assignee: Instrumentarium Corporation
• Inventors: Sepponen, Raimo
• Primary Examiner(s): Howell, Kyle L.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Jaworski, Francis J.
• Application Number:
  US06/695,403
• Time in Patent Office: 249 Days
• Field of Search: 128/653, 128/660, 324/309
• US Class Current: 600/440
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/055 involving electronic [EMR] or nuclear [NMR] magnetic resonance, e.g. magnetic resonance imaging
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/416 the spleen
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/08 Detecting organic movements or changes, e.g. tumours, cysts, swellings A61B8/02 - A61B8/06 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/5238 for combining image data of patient, e.g. merging several images from different acquisition modes into one image for image registration algorithms G06T7/30
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 33/28 Details of apparatus provided for in groups G01R33/44 - G01R33/64
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 33/381 using electromagnets
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 33/4814 MR combined with ultrasound

Abstract

The invention relates to a diagnosis apparatus for simultaneously collecting information on tissue structure and tissue quality from a target, e.g. human body to be examined. The apparatus of the invention comprises means (1) for emitting ultrasonic pulses and for detecting and registering reflections from the interfaces between tissues in target area (16) determined by said means, and means (10) for processing the information obtained from a target area by means of said ultrasonic pulses as well as means (8) for visualizing the information for finding and localizing tissue area to be characterized.

The apparatus is further provided with elements (2, 3, 11, 12, 13) for collecting tissue identification information by means of a nuclear magnetic resonance or NMR-phenomenon from target to be examined in manner that the tissue identification area (19) sensitive to nuclear magnetic resonanse is arranged to be produced in said target area (16) localized and visualized by ultrasonic pulses for immediate analysis on said tissue area to be characterized.

Claims

1. Diagnosis apparatus for simultaneously collecting information on tissue structure and quality of the tissues from a target, for example a human body, to be examined, said apparatus including means for transmitting ultrasonic pulses and for detecting and recording reflections from interface between the tissues, said reflections resulting from quick changes in acoustic impedance and being detected and recorded from a given target area determined by said means and selected for examination, means for processing the information obtained by said ultrasonic pulses from said target area and visually displaying the target area and the information, nuclear magnetic resonance means for collecting tissue information essentially simultaneously with the ultrasonic means from said selected area of said target under examination and establishing nuclear magnetic resonance sensitive tissue identification information from said selected area of said target area, said apparatus further including information processing means operatively connected with said nuclear magnetic resonance means for processing the tissue identification information obtained by said nuclear magnetic resonance means simultaneously with information collected by the ultrasonic means and displaying said tissue identification information along with the visual display of the information collected by said ultrasonic means, and means for effecting a magnetic field which is substantially homogeneous in said target area to be examined, said means for effecting a homogeneous magnetic field comprising an electromagnet including at least two annular magnetic elements disposed at spaced relationship with each other and about said ultrasonic transmitting means, said target to be examined being arranged to be disposed inside said magnetic elements with said target area to be examined positioned in the center area between said magnetic elements, said ultrasonic pulses transmitting and detecting means comprises an ultrasonic matrix sensor and said nuclear magnetic resonance means includes means about the sensor for effecting field gradients within the created homogeneous magnetic field and means about the sensor for transmitting radio-frequency electromagnetic pulses and for detecting nuclear magnetic resonance-signals created in said nuclear magnetic resonance-sensitive tissue identification zone by means of said pulses, a transfer unit including said ultrasonic matrix sensor and said means for transmitting radio-frequency pulses and for detecting nuclear magnetic resonance-signals being mounted to be freely transferable over said target under examination.

2. Diagnosis apparatus as claimed in claim 1, said transferable unit includes a transfer mechanism having angle sensors for registering the point of determination and establishing accurate direction of the tissue identification information collected for recording from said target under examination.

3. Diagnosis apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein said means for effecting field gradients comprises two magnetic source elements, disposed at a distance from each other and operable to create said homogeneous magnetic field and positioned on opposite sides of said transferable unit.

4. Diagnosis apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein said means for transmitting radio-frequency pulses comprises a coil assembly operable to transmit said pulses and receive the NMR-signals created in said NMR-sensitive tissue identification zone for further recording.

5. Diagnosis apparatus as claimed in claim 3, including means for displacing said NMR-sensitive tissue identification zone relative to said target area as determined by the obtained ultrasonic image.

6. Diagnosis apparatus as claimed in claim 5, wherein, for said displacement of said NMR-sensitive tissue identification zone, said coil assembly includes a signal coil means and a gradient coil means mounted to the ultrasonic probe and provided with means for changing the frequency of the created pulses to generate tissue characterization information.

7. Diagnosis apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the localization and alignment of the desired NMR-sensitive tissue identification zone in a patient being arranged to be effected by means of said visualizing means, and the information collected by ultrasonic pulses as well as the tissue identification information being arranged to be visualized simultaneously.

8. Diagnosis apparatus as claimed in claim 7, wherein, for the determination of the position of said NMR-sensitive tissue identification zone in said target area to be examined, said visualizing means comprises a display means provided with an indicator the position of which is an ultrasonic image created on said display means is arranged to correspond to the position of said NMR-sensitive tissue identification zone in said target area to be examined, said display means being also used for visualizing the information collected by NMR-analysis.

9. Method for detecting and diagnosing anomalies and sickly changes, e.g. due to cancer, inflammation, hemorrhage, in tissue structures of a biological object, e.g. a human body, to be examined by simultaneously collecting information on tissue structure and quality of the tissues, said method including the steps of transmitting ultrasonic pulses into a given target area of said object selected for examination and detecting and recording the resulting reflections due to quick changes in acoustic impedance from interfaces between the tissue structures in said target area for the localization of possibly sick tissues of interest, processing the information obtained by said ultrasonic pulses from said target area for visualization thereof, simultaneously with processing the information from said ultrasonic pulses providing radio-frequency electromagnetic pulses into said localized tissue structures of interest in said target area for collecting tissue identification information provided by nuclear magnetic resonance or NMR-phenomenon from said object to be examined, and simultaneously processing the tissue identification information obtained by NMR-analysis with the information collected by the ultrasonic pulses to produce information related to the character of the tissue.

10. A method as claimed in claim 9, including the step of visualizing the information collected by NMR-analysis simultaneously with the ultrasonic image of the target area.

11. A method as claimed in claim 9 or 10, including the steps of storing NMR-information of a number of separate healthy biological tissues and comparing the NMR-information received from the tissues in the target area of the object under examination with said stored NMR-information of healthy tissues respectively.