Terumo Kabushiki Kaisha

Terumo Corporation

Mitsubishi Petro. Co.

Mitsubishi Petrochemical

Tadashi Fujii

Hiroyuki Yagami

Iwao Seo

Masahiro Sasaki

Takafumi Go

Yoshinori Hayakawa

Shinji Ishida

Keiji Yamaguchi

Hideo Ishizaka

Toru Kawashima

Masahiro Onoda

Yoshizo Ishizuka

Hiroshi Katsumata

Toshinori Hirano

A cardiac pacemaker improved to reduce the weight and size and to unburden the wearer of the pacemaker, while ensuring safe transmission of signals. The cardiac pacemaker includes a cardiac pacemaker main body 100 having at least two electrodes for detecting cardio-information, a control section for performing a control by outputting pulses on the basis of the cardio-information, and a transmitting section for modulating the pulses and transmitting the modulated pulses. The pacemaker also has pacing electrode portion having a receiving section for receiving the transmitted pulses and stimulating electrodes activated by the pulses output from the receiving section.

Cardiac pacemaker using wireless transmission

An ultrasonic probe includes a piezoelectric material layer having a pair of electrodes provided on both main surfaces thereof for applying voltage thereto, and a backing material provided on one electrode. The backing material has an acoustic impedance lower than that of the piezoelectric material layer. Interposed between the backing material and one electrode is an acoustic reflecting material layer which has a thick first portion and a thin second portion. The second portion may have a substantially zero thickness to allow the backing material to be in partial contact with one electrode. Thereby, the ultrasonic probe can transmit and receive ultrasonic waves at its resonance frequencies. Also provided is an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus which displays an image resultant from combining images having the frequencies obtained by driving the ultrasonic probe.

Ultrasonic probe having backing material layer of uneven thickness

Organism signal measuring apparatus

An ultrasonic coupler provided with an ultrasonic wave propagating member formed of a water-containing polymeric gel and a holder for accommodating said propagating member and fixing it to a probe, which ultrasonic coupler is intended to be interposed between a subject under test and an ultrasonic probe for transmitting and receiving an ultrasonic wave to and from the subject under test and characterized by the fact that said ultrasonic wave propagating member is a water-containing polymeric gel produced by integrally cross-linking an aqueous solution of a water-soluble polymeric compound with said holder inside said holder.

Ultrasonic coupler and method for production thereof

An electrocardiograph has an R wave detector for detecting an R wave out of an electrocardiogram (ECG) signal being collected from a subject. When the R wave detector detects an R wave, a heart rate and an ST value of the ECG signal are written to a storage which is assigned to heart rates and ST values in synchronism with the R wave. When the subject presses an event switch on feeling a subjective symptom, the waveform of the ECG signal is written to another storage which is assigned to waveforms. The electrocardiograph records a minimum necessary amount of information for screening, i.e., the heart rates, ST values, and waveforms of ECG signal associated with subjective symptoms. The electrocardiograph is, therefore, miniature and easy to carry while reducing the period of time necessary for analysis.

Long-term electrocardiograph for screening

A vital signal measuring apparatus includes histogram forming device to prepare histograms of a plurality of feature values associated with vital signals, causes a feature value selecting device to select on the basis of a distribution of the histograms, a feature value having information most useful to a vital signal analysis thereby effect a vital signal analysis by an analizing device with considerations of the individual characteristics of subjects. Yet, when a histogram is prepared in a predetermined period of time, accurate judgement and analysis of normality and abnormality in response to changes in a person during a day or between respective examination days can be achieved, and abnormal signals can be easily selected to be stored in a memory.

Apparatus for analyzing vital signals based upon a feature selected from

An ultrasonic transducer includes a piezoelectric body having a reflector and an acoustic matching layer deposited on the opposing surfaces thereof. The piezoelectric body is constituted by a piezoelectric member exhibiting an acoustic impedence of from 2.5.times.10.sup.6 to 15.times.10.sup.6 kg/m.sup.2 s, and the reflector has a thickness of less than .lambda..sub.2 / 4, where .lambda..sub.2 represents the wavelength of sound in the reflector at a frequency which is one half the free resonance frequency of the piezoelectric body. The acoustic matching layer includes a material exhibiting an acoustic impedance of from 1.6.times.10.sup.6 to 4.times.10.sup.6 kg/m.sup.2 s and has a thickness of from .lambda..sub.3 /8 to 28 .lambda..sub.3 /120, where .lambda..sub.3 represents the wavelength of sound in the acoustic matching layer at a frequency which is one half the free resonance frequency of the piezoelectric body.

Ultrasonic transducer

An ultrasonic transducer includes a piezoelectric member consisting of either a unpolarized piezoelectric polymer material or the like, or an in-advance polarized piezoelectric polymer material or the like, a first flexible substrate on which a first electrode set and their connecting leads are formed, these being bonded to one surface of the piezoelectric member, and a second flexible substrate on which a second electrode and its connecting lead are formed, these being bonded to the other surface of the piezoelectric member, wherein the piezoelectric member is sandwiched between the first electrode set and second electrode. The electrodes can apply a voltage to polarize the unpolarized piezoelectric polymer material in a manufacturing process of the piezoelectric member, or apply a drive voltage to the finished ultrasonic transducer.

Method of manufacturing an ultrasonic transducer

An ultrasonic transducer includes a plate-shaped piezoelectric body made of a piezoelectric polymer material and having a polarized portion obtained by polarizing a prescribed region thereof, as well as first and second unpolarized portions contiguous to the polarized portion. A first electrode is formed on one main surface of the piezoelectric body to cover the polarized portion and has an edge portion extending over the first unpolarized portion. A second electrode is formed on the other main surface of the piezoelectric body to cover the polarized portion and has an edge portion extending over the second unpolarized portion. A first conductive lead is electrically connected to the edge portion of the first electrode, and a second conductive lead is electrically connected to the edge portion of the second electrode.

Ultrasonic transducer and method of manufacturing same

An ultrasonic transducer includes a piezoelectric member consisting of either a unpolarized piezoelectric polymer material or the like, or an in-advance polarized piezoelectric polymer material or the like, a first flexible substrate on which a first electrode set and their connecting leads are formed, these being bonded to one surface of the piezoelectric member, and a second flexible substrate on which a second electrode and its connecting lead are formed, these being bonded to the other surface of the piezoelectric member, wherein the piezoelectric member is sandwiched between the first electrode set and second electrode. The electrodes can apply a voltage to polarize the unpolarized piezoelectric polymer material in a manufacturing process of the piezoelectric member, or apply a drive voltage to the finished ultrasonic transducer. Also disclosed is a method of manufacturing the ultrasonic transducer.

Piezoelectric ultrasonic transducer with flexible electrodes adhered

In a method and apparatus for ultrasonic measurement, an ultrasonic pulse is transmitted into a object and received as an echo signal following reflection within the object, and the acoustic characteristic of the object is measured based on object position and frequency information contained in the echo signal. The measured acoustic characteristic is representative of information relating to degree of attenuation and frequency dependence thereof inside the object and obtained from the position and frequency information contained in the echo signal. The apparatus according to this invention displays an image of the distribution of the object acoustic characteristic obtained from the measured acoustic characteristic.

Ultrasonic measurement method, and apparatus therefor

The acoustic characteristics, particularly the attenuation coefficient, internally of a object undergoing examination are measured on the basis of ultrasonic echo pulse, and diminishing the influence of the sound field. Standard media having attenuation coefficients that differ from one another are measured in advance by a predetermined method to find the attenuation rates and attenuation coefficients thereof. The attenuation coefficient of the object is taken to be the attenuation coefficient of one of the standard media that minimizes a difference between the attenuation rate of each standard media and the attenuation rate of the object, which is measured based on an ultrasonic echo signal from within the object.

In a method and apparatus for ultrasonic measurement, there are provided first and second ultrasonic transducers arranged to directly oppose each other across an object interposed therebetween, and a third ultrasonic transducer, the transducers being so arranged that a ray from the third ultrasonic transducer intersects, internally of the object, a ray connecting the first and second ultrasonic transducers. A first period of time required for an ultrasonic wave emitted by the first ultrasonic transducer to be received by the second ultrasonic transducer through the object is measured, as well as second and third periods of time respectively required for an ultrasonic wave emitted by the third ultrasonic transducer to be received by the first and second ultrasonic transducers following scattering of the ultrasonic wave from within the object. Mean propagation velocity of sound or a distribution of propagation velocity of sound internally of the object is measured on the basis of the first, second and third periods of time.

An ultrasonic transducer is adapted to transmit spherical ultrasonic waves which have a plurality of frequencies into an object under examination while being scanned in a direction at right angles to the direction of transmission. By repeating this operation, echo signals are obtained, on the basis of which a B-scan distribution image of the echo signals is obtained through use of a synthetic aperture method. Using the distribution image, there is determined position information relating to positions of interest in the object as indicated in the distribution image, as well as scanning positions of the ultrasonic transducer situated on extensions of straight lines connecting the positions of interest. The attenuation coefficient of the object is measured based on echo signals at the scanning positions.

Ultrasonic measurement method and apparatus therefor

A method and apparatus wherein two probes are arranged to oppose each other on either side of an object under investigation and each of two probes emits ultrasonic waves to measure the acoustic characteristics of the object respectively. Mean attenuation coefficients for small intervals can be calculated solely from the received echo signals by processing signals indicative of echos of the ultrasonic waves from the two probes. Reflection coefficients can be calculated from the mean attenuation coefficients obtained. In addition, a distribution image of either of the mean attenuation coefficient and reflection coefficient distributions are obtained from these mean attenuation coefficients and reflection coefficients for the small intervals.

Growing community of inventors

Fujinomiya, Japan

Tadashi Fujii