Therapy apparatus with a source of acoustic waves
First Claim
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1. A therapy apparatus comprising:
- a source of therapeutic acoustic waves;
a diagnostic ultrasound transducer which emits a diagnostic ultrasound beam directed at a subject to be treated, said diagnostic ultrasound beam having a central ray, and said diagnostic ultrasound transducer also receiving ultrasound waves reflected from said subject;
means for operating said ultrasound transducer for displacing said central ray in a scan surface for scanning a body slice of said subject, said body slice having a middle surface corresponding to said scanning surface;
means for generating and displaying a sequence of ultrasound images from the ultrasound waves received by said diagnostic ultrasound transducer; and
adjustment means for, during the generation and display of said ultrasound images, continually displacing said scanning surface relative to said source of therapeutic acoustic waves for producing a maximum displacement of said scanning surface relative to a neural position of said scanning surface which does not substantially exceed twice an image resolution of said ultrasound images measured in a direction of the displacement of the scanning surface.
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Abstract
A therapy apparatus with a source of therapeutic acoustic waves, an ultrasound locating system with a diagnostic ultrasound transducer that emits a diagnostic ultrasound beam whose central ray is displaceable such in a scanning surface so that it scans a body slice of a subject to be treated achieves an improved image quality of the ultrasound images by the scanning surface being continually displaced slightly relative to the source during the generation of ultrasound images.
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Citations
16 Claims
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1. A therapy apparatus comprising:
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a source of therapeutic acoustic waves; a diagnostic ultrasound transducer which emits a diagnostic ultrasound beam directed at a subject to be treated, said diagnostic ultrasound beam having a central ray, and said diagnostic ultrasound transducer also receiving ultrasound waves reflected from said subject; means for operating said ultrasound transducer for displacing said central ray in a scan surface for scanning a body slice of said subject, said body slice having a middle surface corresponding to said scanning surface; means for generating and displaying a sequence of ultrasound images from the ultrasound waves received by said diagnostic ultrasound transducer; and adjustment means for, during the generation and display of said ultrasound images, continually displacing said scanning surface relative to said source of therapeutic acoustic waves for producing a maximum displacement of said scanning surface relative to a neural position of said scanning surface which does not substantially exceed twice an image resolution of said ultrasound images measured in a direction of the displacement of the scanning surface. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
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Specification