JPS631063B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a microwave device that uses microwaves to detect and treat a diseased area within a body cavity.

The principle of treating an affected area such as a malignant tumor in a living body by heating it to kill the cells is already known. However, it can be said that there is still no effective therapeutic means based on this principle. For example, the following methods are known as means for thermally treating an affected area within a body cavity. first,
Using the air and water supply ports and suction ports provided at the tip of the endoscope, blow hot air or hot water from the air and water ports to the affected area within the body cavity, and also blow the warm air or hot water from the suction port. There is a way to collect it and heat treat it. However, although this method can be expected to be effective to some extent when the malignant tumor is exposed on the surface of the body, when the tumor is located deep within the body, blood circulation in the normal tissue on the surface side prevents the temperature from rising. Since the body controls itself, the heat is not transmitted deep into the body, making it ineffective.

In addition, using a conventional high-frequency scalpel or laser scalpel for endoscopy has been considered as another method, but these instruments are originally used for surgically removing the affected area, and they may accidentally remove normal tissue. If it comes into contact with tissue, it is not practical because there is a risk that even the normal tissue will be killed. Moreover, even if the output could be reduced, it would not be effective against deep affected areas for the same reason as mentioned above.

On the other hand, when treating the affected area within the body cavity,
The presence or absence of an affected area and its location must be detected in advance. However, in the past, it has not been possible to continuously detect the affected area and perform treatment using the various means described above. That is, after detecting the affected area by inserting the detection means through the channel of the endoscope, the detection means is extracted from the channel, and then a treatment means such as a high-frequency scalpel or a laser scalpel is passed through the channel for treatment. Therefore, it takes a lot of time and effort from detecting the affected area to treating it, and not only is the operability extremely poor, but it is also difficult to treat the affected area detected by the detection means using the therapeutic means. There was a risk that the scope could shift within the body cavity, making it impossible to reliably treat the affected area.

Furthermore, the above-mentioned detection means utilizes the fact that the affected part of a living tissue, such as cancer or tumor, is about 1°C hotter than normal tissue. There is. For example, by inserting a temperature measuring probe into the channel and pressing it against the inner surface of the body cavity, the temperature can be measured, or by pressing a liquid crystal film against the inner surface of the body cavity and observing the color change of this liquid crystal film. For example, temperature can be determined based on the temperature.

However, since these detection means utilize heat conduction through contact, they can only measure the surface temperature within the living body, and cannot reliably discover the affected area under the mucosa. Of course, it is impossible to detect affected areas such as the pancreas or liver where detection means cannot be inserted.

In other words, in the past, not only was it difficult to reliably detect and reliably treat the affected area beneath the surface of the body cavity, but also it was not possible to easily and quickly perform the continuous detection and treatment of the affected area. .

This invention was made based on the above-mentioned circumstances, and the purpose is that microwaves easily pass through biological tissue, and that biological tissue emits electromagnetic waves depending on its temperature state. Focusing on the fact that microwaves easily penetrate biological tissue, we have developed a technology that uses microwaves to reliably detect and treat diseased areas beneath the surface of the body, and that allows for continuous detection and treatment. An object of the present invention is to provide a microwave device that can quickly perform the following steps.

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2. 1 in Figure 1 is an endoscope,
This endoscope main body 2 has an insertion section 3 inserted into a biological cavity.
and an operating section 4 on the hand side. The insertion section 3 is formed by connecting a distal end component 7 to the distal end of a flexible tube section 5 via a bending section 6, and the bending section 6 is bent by rotating the operating knob 8 of the operating section 4. , the orientation of the tip component 7 can be selectively operated. Furthermore, a flexible light guide cable 9 is connected to the operation section 4, and a connector 12 that is attached to the socket section 11 of the illumination light source device 10 is fixedly attached to the tip of the light guide cable 9. ing. A light guide 13 made of, for example, an optical fiber bundle is inserted across the insertion section 3, the operation section 4, and the light guide cable 9 of the endoscope body 2, and the light guide 13 is used for illumination. Guide the illumination light from the light source device 10 to the tip component 7,
Illumination light is emitted from an illumination window 14 formed in this tip component 7. Further, an image guide 1 made of, for example, an optical fiber bundle is provided inside the insertion section 3 and the operation section 4 of the endoscope body 2.
5 is inserted, and the optical image obtained through the observation window 16 and objective lens 17 formed in the distal end component 7 is guided to the eyepiece 18 of the operating section 4, so that the field of view inside the living body cavity can be observed. It's becoming like that. Note that the illumination window 14 and the observation window 16 are installed side by side on the tip surface 20 of the main body 19 of the tip component 7,
It constitutes a so-called direct viewing endoscope.

As shown in FIG. 2, the distal end component 7 is provided with a heater 21 embedded therein located at the distal end surface of the main body 19 and emitting microwaves for heating the affected area within the body cavity. There is. This heater 21 consists of a pole-shaped antenna 22 that emits microwaves and a reflector 23 that directs the emitted microwaves forward and provides directivity. A rotating parabolic reflector is used. The reflector 23 is made of a metal material to prevent side radiation, and its front opening is covered with a protective film made of a material with low conductivity, such as vinyl chloride, to prevent bodily fluids from entering the interior. 24 is attached. The antenna 22 is not limited to a pole type, but may be a dipole type, and its shape is not limited. In addition,
Main body 1 of tip component 7 in which reflector 23 is embedded
9 is preferably made of a flame-retardant insulating material such as epoxy resin or ceramic, and is also made of a material with high strength.

The antenna 22 of the heater 21 is connected to the endoscope main body 2.
It is connected to a transmission path, for example, a transmission line 25, inserted therein. That is, the transmission line 25 is provided across the insertion section 3 and the operation section 4 of the endoscope main body 2, and the antenna 22 is attached to the tip thereof. Further, the rear end of the transmission line 25 is inserted into a universal cord 26 connected to the operating section 4. A connector 27 is connected and fixed to the end of this universal cord 26, and this connector 27 is connected to a socket portion 29 of a control device 28. The transmission line 25 is composed of a so-called coaxial cable, which has a core wire 30 as shown in FIG.
It consists of a dielectric material 31 surrounding this and a shielding material 32 covering the outside thereof.

The transmission line 25 is connected to the microwave power supply device 33 in the control device 28 . This microwave power supply device 33 is connected to a regulator 3 as shown in FIG.
4. An oscillation unit 36 having an oscillator 35 that sends a microwave current to the transmission line 25 and the oscillation tube 3
5.

Further, as shown in FIG. 2, the distal end component 7 is provided with a detector 38 in its main body 19 adjacent to the heater 21 for detecting microwaves emitted from the body cavity wall. That is, this detector 38 has a horn-shaped microwave receiving antenna 39 made of a conductive material facing the observation direction by the image guide 15, and a waveguide 4 connected to this receiving antenna 39.
0, a detection resonator 41 that is connected to the waveguide 40 and resonates microwaves of a specific wavelength among the microwaves received through the waveguide 40; and the detection resonator 4
The power measuring section 42 converts the strength of the microwave oscillated in step 1 into an electrical signal. A signal line 43 is connected to this power measuring section 42, and this signal line 43
is inserted into the universal cord 26. By connecting the universal cord 26 to the control device 28, the signal line 43 is connected to a signal processing section 44 provided inside the control device 28, and this signal processing section 44 receives the electric signal from the power measurement section 42. The temperature is processed and displayed on the display section 45 as a temperature. The front opening of the receiving antenna 39 is closed with a protective film 39a made of a material with low conductivity, such as vinyl chloride, to prevent bodily fluids from entering the receiving antenna 39.

Next, the effect will be explained. Endoscope body 2
When the insertion section 3 is introduced into a body cavity and the interior of this body cavity is observed, microwaves from the direction of the observation field of view are received by the detection resonator 41 from the receiving antenna 39 of the detector 38 via the waveguide 40. Therefore, only a certain wavelength determined by the size of the detection resonator 41 resonates. The resonant microwave is converted into an electric signal by the power measuring section 42, flows through the signal line 43, is processed by the signal processing section 44, and is then displayed as temperature on the display section 45. By the way, the temperature of a diseased area such as cancer or tumor increases because the amount of microwave radiation is higher than that of normal tissue. Furthermore, as described above, the microwaves are transmitted through living tissue and emitted. Therefore, it is possible to detect an affected area on or below the surface of a site exhibiting a higher temperature than normal tissue.

In this way, once the affected area has been detected, the output from the oscillating unit 36 is sent to the heater 21 while adjusting the regulator 34 of the microwave power supply 33.
send to Then, microwaves are oscillated from the antenna 22, reflected by the reflector 23, and emitted from the heater 21, and the affected area detected by the detector 38 receives the microwave radiation. As a result, the temperature of both the affected area and normal tissue rises, but the temperature of the normal tissue only rises slightly due to active blood circulation, but the affected area has poor blood circulation and is therefore less sensitive to microwave radiation. The temperature rises depending on the amount. and,
When the temperature of the affected area reaches approximately 42°C, the cells in that tissue are destroyed by the heat, and the affected area is then treated. Further, as mentioned above, since microwaves pass through biological tissue, it is possible to treat not only the affected area on the surface but also the affected area below the surface.

That is, once the affected area is detected by the detector 38, the affected area can be treated continuously by the heater 21 without moving the insertion section 3 of the endoscope main body 2.

Note that this invention is not limited to the above embodiment,
A configuration as shown in FIG. 3 may be used. That is, in this embodiment, the oscillation section 36 of the microwave power supply device 33 is connected to the cylindrical oscillation resonance section 46 connected to the oscillation tube 35 and the first short circuit that is movably fitted into the oscillation resonance section 46. It consists of a plate 47. This first shorting plate 47 has an operating wire 48
A rack 49 is connected through the rack 49.
A pinion 52 fitted onto the shaft of a motor 51 controlled by a first motor control section 50 is engaged with the pinion 52 . Therefore, by rotating the pinion 52 by the motor 51, the first short circuit plate 47 is moved, and the volume of the resonance space 53 of the oscillation resonance section 46 is changed.

The detector 38 is composed of a cylindrical body 55 with a resonance space 54 inside the detection resonator 41 and a second shorting plate 56 movably fitted into the cylindrical body 55. A power measuring section 42 was provided on the outer peripheral wall of the shaped body 55. A wire 57 is connected to the second shorting plate 56 at one end. The other end of this wire 57 is led to the operating section 4 and connected there to a rack 58. A pinion 59 is meshed with this rack 58, and this pinion 59 is fitted onto the shaft of a motor 60 built into the operating section 4. This motor 60 is electrically connected to a second motor control section 61 built into the control device 28. Therefore, the volume of the resonant space 54 of the detection resonator 41 can be changed by rotating the pinion 59 by the motor 60, pushing and pulling the wire 57 through the rack 58, and moving the second shorting plate 56. I'm starting to be able to do it.

With such a configuration, it is possible to change the frequency of the microwave that resonates in the detector 38 and the frequency of the microwave that is emitted from the heater 21. That is, by reducing the volume of the resonance space 54 of the detection resonance section 41, the frequency of the microwave resonating in this resonance space 54 can be increased, and the volume of the resonance space 53 of the oscillation resonance section 46 can be increased. If so, the frequency of the microwaves emitted from this can be lowered.

By the way, microwaves are generally said to be electromagnetic waves having a frequency of 10 ⁹ to 3×10 ¹⁰ [Hz], as shown in FIG. The higher the frequency of microwaves, the greater the amount of radiation, and the higher the temperature of an object, the greater the amount of radiation from this object. In addition, in FIG. 4, T ₁ >T ₂ . Therefore, when detecting the affected area, it is better to resonate at a frequency as high as possible. This is because the amount of radiation is higher than that of low frequencies, so it can detect weak microwaves emitted from deep affected areas, so the affected area cannot be overlooked.The wavelength is short, so resolution is high and even small affected areas can be detected. Because it can be discovered.

On the other hand, when performing heat treatment by radiating microwaves, it is better to use a lower frequency. because,
This is because the rate of absorption into the tissue is low and the penetration power is high, making it possible to perform heat treatment to deeper affected areas.

Therefore, as in the embodiment shown in FIG.
By having a configuration in which the frequency of the microwaves emitted from the device 1 can be changed, it is possible to detect a small diseased area deep within the body and reliably heat treat the affected area.

As described above, the present invention includes a detection range for detecting microwaves emitted from the body cavity wall at the distal end of an insertion section that can be inserted into the body cavity, and a heater that emits microwaves toward the body cavity wall. Because of this, not only the surface of the body cavity wall but also the affected area below the surface can be reliably detected and heat treated. Furthermore, since the detection of the affected area and the heating treatment can be performed continuously while the insertion section is inserted into the body cavity, the operation can be performed quickly and easily, which is extremely useful in practice.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the entire device showing one embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of the main parts, and FIG. 3 is a schematic cross-sectional configuration of the main parts showing another embodiment of the invention. 4 are explanatory diagrams showing general characteristics of microwaves. 3... Insertion section, 21... Heater, 25... Transmission line, 33... Microwave power supply device, 36... Oscillator section, 38... Detector, 41... Detection resonance section, 47
...First shorting plate, 53, 54... Resonance space, 5
6...Second shorting plate.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A detector that detects microwaves emitted from the body cavity wall and a heater that emits microwaves toward the body cavity wall are provided at the distal end of the insertion section that can be inserted into the body cavity. A microwave device characterized by: 2. The microwave detector according to claim 1, wherein the detector includes a detection resonator for detecting microwaves and a shorting plate for changing the volume of a resonance space of the detection resonator. Device. 3. The heater is connected to a microwave oscillation section via a transmission line, and the oscillation section includes an oscillation resonance section and a short circuit plate that changes the volume of the resonance space of the oscillation resonance section. A microwave device according to claim 1, characterized in that: