ULTRASONIC MEDICAL TREATING DEVICE

摘要

An ultrasound therapy apparatus is suitably designed for ultrasonic treatments of prostate. The ultrasound therapy apparatus is so arranged in that focused ultrasound for therapeutical purposes can be correctly targeted to a target region, and also, a positional shift from the target region under irradiation of ultrasound can be effectively avoided. An ultrasound transducer 5 for generating focused ultrasound used in therapeutical purposes is arranged inside an applicator 4 in combination with an imaging ultrasonic probe 6. On the other hand, another ultrasound transducer 2 for monitoring a position of a target and a positional shift is provided inside a catheter which is inserted into an urethral tube. An imaging system 7 drives the ultrasound probe 6 so as to display an ultrasound tomographic image of a region in the vicinity of a target region on a display 10. The ultrasound transducer 2 is driven in a pulse-shaped mode at the same frequency as that of the imaging ultrasound and also at such timing when the imaging ultrasound is reached. As a result, a point-shaped sound source image is displayed on an ultrasound tomographic image of the display 10 in a superimpose manner. This point-shaped sound source image indicates a position of the ultrasound transducer 2, as viewed from the applicator. Since the positional shift from the position of the point-shaped sound source image when the position adjustment of the applicator is accomplished is monitored, the positional shift of the applicator occurred while the focused ultrasound is irradiated can be monitored.