Scanning mechanisms comprising drive mechanism for imparting rotational motion to imaging conduit

摘要

Disclosed is an imaging probe (31) comprised of a hollow shaft, a rotatable conduit, a movable member (70) and an imaging assembly (30). The rotatable conduit extends through the hollow shaft and defines a longitudinal axis. The rotatable conduit is connectable to a rotational drive mechanism for adjusting its angular velocity about the longitudinal axis. The imaging assembly (30) is attached to the rotatable conduit at a location remote from a proximal end of the rotatable conduit. The rotatable conduit is configured to deliver energy to the imaging assembly (30). The imaging assembly includes a movable member (70) for delivering an energy beam along an energy beam path from said movable member (70) out of the hollow shaft at a variable imaging angle to the longitudinal axis. The movable member (70) is mounted so that the variable imaging angle between the beam path and the longitudinal axis is varied by adjusting the angular velocity of the rotatable conduit. A restoring mechanism (76) associated with the movable member (70) is also provided. The restoring mechanism (76) is for orienting the movable member (70) in an orientation relative to the rotatable conduit. This orientation constitutes an original imaging angle occurring in the absence of rotation of the rotatable conduit.