Transesophageal echocardiography device
First Claim
1. An ultrasound endoscopy device for transesophageal echocardiography, comprising;
- an ultrasound transducer, for scanning a series of parallel section planes of the heart with ultrasonic energy, converting ultrasound scans into electrical signals, the electrical signals being analogs of the scanned series of parallel section planes, and transmitting the electrical signals, the ultrasound transducer being slidably mounted upon a sliding rail situated in the interior of the device, such that the transducer may be linearly moved along the sliding rail of the device;
ultrasound diagnostic means for receiving analog signals of said series of parallel section planes, converting the analog signals into signals in the form of tomograms and transmitting the signals; and
an image processing system for receiving the signals in the form of tomograms from the diagnostic means, the image processing system comprising,a memory storage buffer capable of storing at least one said tomogram in synchronization with the cardiac phases when scanning each said section plane;
a main memory for storiong at least one three-dimensional image composed of a series of parallel ones of said tomograms;
data selection and transmission means interconnecting a data output port of said memory storage buffer to a data entry port of said main memory, said data selection and transmission means selecting individual ones of said tomograms assigned to consecutive cardiac cycles and transmitting such to said main memory only in those instances where said individual tomograms correspond to cardiac cycles having the same duration; and
means for preventing the movement of the ultrasound transducer to the next one of said section planes until a successful transfer of data from said memory storage buffer to said main memory.
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Accused Products
Abstract
In a device for transoesophagal echocardiography, an ultrasound transformer (1) is used to make a sequence of layer images for a plurality of parallel sectional planes with the aid of an ultrasonic diagnostic device (8). The layer images made during one cardiac cycle with the image repetition rate of the ultrasonic diagnostic device (8) are stored in a buffer store (34) and transferred to a main store (48) with the aid of a selection stage (49) to generate three-dimensional sets of images only when a locating device (13), and ECG device (24) and a respiration detector (54) generate release signals which are allocated to a constant spatial probe position, a constant R--R interval distance and a constant respiratory state. The content of the main store (48) is evaluated with the aid of an image processing system (56), whereby sectional images may be calculated, especially for any sectional plane, and displayed on a monitor (31).
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Citations
10 Claims
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1. An ultrasound endoscopy device for transesophageal echocardiography, comprising;
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an ultrasound transducer, for scanning a series of parallel section planes of the heart with ultrasonic energy, converting ultrasound scans into electrical signals, the electrical signals being analogs of the scanned series of parallel section planes, and transmitting the electrical signals, the ultrasound transducer being slidably mounted upon a sliding rail situated in the interior of the device, such that the transducer may be linearly moved along the sliding rail of the device; ultrasound diagnostic means for receiving analog signals of said series of parallel section planes, converting the analog signals into signals in the form of tomograms and transmitting the signals; and an image processing system for receiving the signals in the form of tomograms from the diagnostic means, the image processing system comprising, a memory storage buffer capable of storing at least one said tomogram in synchronization with the cardiac phases when scanning each said section plane; a main memory for storiong at least one three-dimensional image composed of a series of parallel ones of said tomograms; data selection and transmission means interconnecting a data output port of said memory storage buffer to a data entry port of said main memory, said data selection and transmission means selecting individual ones of said tomograms assigned to consecutive cardiac cycles and transmitting such to said main memory only in those instances where said individual tomograms correspond to cardiac cycles having the same duration; and means for preventing the movement of the ultrasound transducer to the next one of said section planes until a successful transfer of data from said memory storage buffer to said main memory. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
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Specification