The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Apr. 23, 1991
Filed:
Aug. 11, 1989
Dietrich Hassler, Uttenreuth, DE;
Erhard Schmidt, Erlangen, DE;
Siemens Aktiengesellschaft, Munich, DE;
Abstract
An apparatus for extracorporeal lithotripsy includes a shock wave source which generates shock waves converging in focus a zone, within which a calculus to be disintegrated is disposed. The shock wave source can be selectively driven to generate high-intensity shock waves for disintegrating the calculus, and for generating low-intensity shock waves for imaging purposes. A pressure sensor is disposed between the focus zone and the shock wave source to register the reflections of the low-intensity shock waves. The pressure sensor has a sensor surface which is substantially coextensive with the cross-sectional area of the shock waves in the region of the pressure sensor, and is connected to a reception circuit which constructs an image of the calculus during the course of treatment based on the signals from the pressure sensor. An acoustic deflection stage is disposed between the pressure sensor and the focus zone and deflects the low-intensity shock waves to generate a sector scan which covers the focus zone of the high-intensity shock waves. The reception circuit can be operated for producing B-images.