Japan Science and Technology Corporation

Kunihiro Chihara

Satoshi Kawata

Tadao Sugiura

Osamu Ohshiro

An ultrasonic angioscope system which uses an imaging technique of sending ultrasonic waves to a portion ahead of a stricture of a blood vessel and visualizing a portion in the forward direction of the angioscope, and which uses a laser breakdown is provided. The ultrasonic angioscope system includes: a laser generating device () installed outside the human body; a probe () that introduces laser beams () emitted from the laser generating device () into a blood vessel () via an optical fiber (), is set at the tip of the optical fiber (), and has a lens () and a water tank () as a dielectric; ultrasonic-wave generating means that uses a laser breakdown () produced in the water tank (); a plurality of hydrophones () that receive reflected waves, of ultrasonic waves emitted by the laser breakdown (), from a stricture portion () of a blood vessel (), and are disposed at the tip end of the probe (); and means of forming a stricture-shaped image of the stricture portion () based on the signals received from the hydrophones () by a synthetic aperture method.

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Osaka, Japan

Kunihiro Chihara