Hitachi Aloka Medical, Ltd.

The University of Tokyo

Aloka Co., Ltd.

Other

Ryoichi Sakai

Kozo Nakamura

Akimitsu Harada

Eiichi Minagawa

Koji Ogawa

Koichi Miyasaka

Isao Onishi

Masaru Murashita

Satoru Ohashi

Isao Ohnishi

Koji Hirota

Toshiro Uehara

Juntaro Matsuyama

Kenji Tobita

Jyuntaro Matsuyama

A flexure display is a display graph in which positions of a plurality of surface points and amounts of displacement are correlated. A slider provides a user interface for setting time. A time which is set through the slider is reflected on the flexure display or the like. The flexure display provides a graph showing an amount of displacement of each surface point at the time which is set through the slider. A load display shows a temporal change of an amount of load applied to the bone. A strain display shows a temporal change of an amount of strain of the bone. Time markers showing a predetermined time are displayed on the load display and strain display. The time markers are displayed according to the time which is set through the slider.

Ultrasound diagnosis apparatus

An acoustic matching device has a water bag () that contains water and a water bag support frame () that sandwiches and supports the water bag on the left and right sides of the knee and curves along the knee cap. The water bag becomes a plate shape curved along the shape of the water bag support frame, which touches the knee cap and fits the unevenness of the knee. When an ultrasonic probe is moved along the knee cap, the acoustic matching between the knee cap and the ultrasonic probe is obtained.

Knee acoustic matching device for ultrasonic probe

A mounting unit () is aligned by using a mounting unit frame () touching the thigh and a knee-contacting portion () touching the knee, with the knee being bent. The mounting unit is also equipped with a probe support frame () used for moving an ultrasonic probe along the knee cap. The probe support frame moves rotationally about the mechanical center of the knee joint, thereby allowing the ultrasonic probe () to move along the knee cap while facing toward the mechanical center of the knee joint and to perform scanning of an ultrasonic beam.

Ultrasonic probe support device

An oscillation arm moves in a seesaw fashion about an oscillation axis which is supported by a support rod and which serves as a fulcrum. A rotation arm and a pressurizer are provided on one end of the oscillation arm. One end of the rotation arm is rotatably attached to the oscillation arm, and a load weight is placed on the other end of the rotation arm. By rotating the rotation arm, the magnitude of a force to be applied by the load weight to the pressurizer is adjusted. More specifically, by displacing the load weight to a predetermined position by rotation and then causing the load weight to stop at this position, a static load corresponding to the rotation angle can be applied to the pressurizer. Further, by causing the load weight to perform rotational motion, the magnitude of the force to be applied to the pressurizer is periodically varied, so that a load which varies periodically can be applied to hard tissue.

Load apparatus

Provided is a bone inspecting system for placing the lower legs (L) of an examinee (P) on a proximal support block () and a distal support block () mounted on a turning base (). The proximal support block supports the heads of fibula, and the distal support block supports the lateral malleolus or medial malleolus of a tibial distal end of the examinee. The turning base is supported turnably on a turning axis positioned near the knees of the examinee, with respect to a main base (), and is moved up and down by an elevating mechanism () disposed near the ankles. The turning base () is turned by the elevating mechanism while bearing the lower legs thereon, thereby positioning the lower legs horizontally.

Bone inspecting system, and lower leg supporting device

The present invention provides an ultrasound diagnostic apparatus capable of appropriately evaluating dynamic characteristics of a bone. The ultrasound diagnostic apparatus obtains an interpolated linerepresenting a bone surface shape based on echo signals obtained from ultrasonic beams transmitted to a surface of the bone on which a load is applied. A user inputs an outer diameter &#x3c6; of the bone which can be stored in a memory. The ULTRASOUND DIAGNOSTIC APPARATUS calculates a distortion &#x3b5; which represents an expansion/contraction rate in an axial direction on the bone surface to which the load is applied, based on the interpolated lineand the bone outer diameter &#x3c6;. The distortion &#x3b5; is equal to a ratio defined by x/(x+dx)=r/(r+dr)=r/(r+1/2&#x3c6;), wherein x represents a length of the bone surface in a measurement range (i.e., length of the interpolated line) and x+dx represents a length of a neutral axisof the bone.

Ultrasound diagnostic apparatus

An angle calculating unit calculates a bending angle of a bone based on a plurality of surface points. A characteristic data calculating unit determines an indication value which reflects a load applied on the bone, a bone length of the bone, and a position of a fractured part. The characteristic data calculating unit calculates, as characteristic data reflecting a mechanical characteristic of the bone, a proportionality constant indicating a ratio between the indication value and the bending angle of the bone.

A surface point tracked by an echo tracking processor unit for each ultrasonic beam is a tracking point. A strain measurement unit measures an amount of strain of a bone based on the surface points. A delay time measurement unit measures a time for the amount of strain of the bone to reach a return reference value, corresponding to a state before a load is applied, after the load is first applied to the bone and then removed.

An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to the present invention comprises a plurality of transducer units which are two-dimensionally arranged to transmit/receive an ultrasonic wave to/from hard tissue; a transceiver unit which receives an echo signal for each transducer unit from the plurality of transducer units; a surface point specifying unit which specifies a surface point corresponding to a surface of the hard tissue for each echo signal; and a form data generator unit which generates form data of hard tissue surface on the basis of a plurality of surface points obtained two-dimensionally from the echo signals of the plurality of transducer units.

Ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus

An echo tracking processor unit detects a bone surface section based on an echo signal and tracks a position of the bone surface section. An interpolation line generator unit generates an interpolation line connecting tracking points which represent the tracked bone surface section. A translational displacement corrector unit removes a translational displacement component between an interpolation line corresponding to a time phase of a no-load state stored in a memory and an interpolation line corresponding to a time phase in a loaded state output from the interpolation line generator unit. A strain calculator unit calculates an amount of strain of bone for each time phase and outputs to a characteristic curve generator unit. The characteristic curve generator unit generates a characteristic curve related to the strain of bone based on a load value output from a load measurement device and the amount of strain of bone output from the strain calculator unit.

Growing community of inventors

Mitaka, Japan

Ryoichi Sakai