Integrated Echo-Scintigraphic Probe for Dual-Mode Medical Imaging
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current medical imaging systems, particularly those integrating ultrasound and scintigraphic technologies, are bulky, expensive, and require specialized personnel, limiting their accessibility and practicality for real-time, cost-effective dual-mode imaging in medical diagnostics.
Innovation Solution
A portable echo-scintigraphic probe is designed with a collimated scintillation crystal and piezoelectric bands aligned for integrated imaging, allowing simultaneous detection of ultrasound and gamma rays, enabling easy alignment and fusion of images without the need for complex systems or specialized skills.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If large and expensive imaging systems with integrated tomographic rings are used, then diagnostic accuracy is improved, but device complexity and cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines a scintigraphic probe and an ultrasound probe into a single integrated echo-scintigraphic probe, allowing simultaneous acquisition of both scintigraphic and ultrasound images from the same anatomical region. This merging eliminates the need for separate imaging systems and their associated complex infrastructure, while maintaining diagnostic accuracy through multi-modal imaging capabilities.
2Adaptability or versatility
If integrated tomographic ring systems are used, then dual imaging capability is achieved, but portability and accessibility are reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the imaging system into a compact, handheld probe that integrates both scintigraphic and ultrasound detection capabilities. By dividing the system into a portable probe unit rather than using a large fixed tomographic ring, the invention maintains dual imaging capability while dramatically improving portability and accessibility for clinical use.
3Measurement precision
If specialized personnel are used for image detection, then image quality is improved, but operational cost increases
Solution Approach 1:
The integrated probe design enables automated image acquisition and fusion, reducing the need for highly specialized operators. The system's self-integrating nature, where both scintigraphic and ultrasound images are automatically correlated through the unified probe design, allows less specialized personnel to operate the system while maintaining high image quality through the inherent geometric alignment of the dual detectors.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The probe provides a cost-effective, portable solution for real-time integration of ultrasound and scintigraphic images, enhancing diagnostic accuracy and accessibility by simplifying the imaging process and reducing operational costs, while maintaining high spatial resolution and efficiency.
Implementation Method 1
an echographic probe comprising a plurality of piezoelectric bands extended along an axis y and adjacent to one another along an axis x
Implementation Method 2
a scintigraphic probe for the detection of gamma rays, comprising: a collimator; a scintillation crystal with a scintillation crystal section
Data Source
AI summary
An echo-scintigraphic probe for medical applications and the method of merging images. It is constituted by the union of an ultrasound probe suitably integrated, both in geometric terms, and in terms of image processing, with a scintigraphic probe or gamma camera (3). With a single application of said probe, one is able to provide a double image of the object under examination. The ultrasound probe is housed in the head, above the plane of the collimator and kept projecting to favor the direct contact with the body part of the patient to be examined. The collimator is able to obtain images of the biodistribution of a radiolabelled drug by radiation with frontal incidence, maintaining the characteristics of the ultrasound probe. The probe is applicable to both clinical diagnosis and intraoperative diagnosis of cancer with the use of radio tracers. A guided diagnostic method is disclosed that realizes a functional integration of a pair of ultrasound and scintigraphic images concurrently obtained by the echo-scintigraphic probe.