Endoscopic method & apparatus including ultrasonic B-scan imaging

An endoscopic probe for insertion into a body cavity for use in a system for visually examining and ultrasonic imaging internal body parts comprising,

• a housing having forward and rear ends at the respective distal and proximal ends thereof, said housing having a substantially cylindrical-shaped outer surface with a longitudinal axis,
• means at the rear end of the housing for attachment thereof to an elongated tube,
• a rectilinear transducer array inside said housing extending substantially parallel to the longitudinal probe housing axis and having forward and rear ends adjacent the respective forward and rear ends of the housing, said array comprising a plurality of transducer elements for directing pulses of ultrasonic energy along a beam into body parts,
• cylindrical focusing lens means having one face attached to said transducer face for beam focusing in a plane normal to the longitudinal plane of the transducer array, the outer face of said cylindrical focusing lens means being convex and forming a portion of the outer surface of said housing, and
• an optical system for use in visually examining internal body parts including objective lens means inside said housing adjacent the forward end of the transducer array at the forward end of the housing.

An endoscopic system for visual and ultrasonic imaging of body parts comprising,

• an endoscope comprising an elongated tube and probe at the distal end of the tube insertable into a body organ,
• a television system comprising a camera located at a distance from said endoscope,
• means for optically coupling said television camera to said endoscope and thence through said elongated tube to said probe for optically viewing the organ from the probe,
• and a monitor electrically coupled to said camera for visually displaying an image of the viewed organ, and
• a pulsed rectilinear B-scan ultrasonic imaging system comprising,
• a rectilinear ultrasonic transducer array inside said probe,
• pulse transmitter/receiver means connected to said transducer array for pulse energization of the transducer array for generating ultrasonic wave pulses and for processing signals received from the transducer array, and
• visual display means for B-scan display of the processed signals for the simultaneous display of ultrasonic and video images at said visual display means and monitor, respectively.

In a combination visual and ultrasonic real-time B-scan imaging method which includes the use of an endoscopic system which includes an endoscopic probe insertable into a body organ, which probe includes a rectilinear ultrasonic transducer array and objective lens of optical telescope means, the steps comprising,

• generating by use of said transducer array, recurrent ultrasonic wave pulses to insonify a section of a body part adjacent the body organ into which said probe is inserted,
• receiving reflected wave pulses and converting the same to corresponding electrical signals by use of said transducer array,
• displaying a real-time rectilinear B-scan image of an insonified section of the body part,
• viewing, through said optical telescope means by use of video camera means, optical images of a portion of the interior of the body organ into which the probe is inserted,
• displaying the output from said video camera means at visual display means, and
• locating said B-scan image display means and visual display means adjacent each other for substantially simultaneous viewing by the operator of the endoscopic system.