阅读说明：本技术 基于微波热声和超声成像的甲状腺检测装置及方法 (thyroid detection device and method based on microwave thermoacoustic and ultrasonic imaging ) 是由 张玲 于 2019-10-21 设计创作，主要内容包括：本发明公开了一种基于微波热声和超声成像的甲状腺检测装置及方法。本发明借助微波热声成像技术获取甲状腺形态的微波热声图像,再将微波热声图像和超声图像进行叠加,实现同一图像中同时显示微波热声图像和超声图像,完成基于超声成像精确解剖位置引导的甲状腺形态加热声功能性影像显示。(the invention discloses a thyroid gland detection device and method based on microwave thermoacoustic and ultrasonic imaging. According to the invention, a microwave thermoacoustic image of the thyroid form is obtained by means of a microwave thermoacoustic imaging technology, and then the microwave thermoacoustic image and an ultrasonic image are superposed, so that the microwave thermoacoustic image and the ultrasonic image are simultaneously displayed in the same image, and the thyroid form and thermoacoustic functional image display guided by an ultrasonic imaging accurate anatomical position is completed.)

1. A thyroid detection device based on microwave thermoacoustic and ultrasonic imaging is characterized by comprising:

The microwave excitation system is used for emitting pulse microwave signals by the microwave source and radiating the thyroid gland by the pulse microwave signals to generate microwave thermoacoustic signals;

The ultrasonic transmitter is used for exciting the ultrasonic transducer to send out an ultrasonic signal;

The ultrasonic transducer is used for receiving microwave thermoacoustic signals generated by the thyroid; the ultrasonic signal transmitting device is used for receiving an excitation signal sent by the ultrasonic transmitter to generate an ultrasonic signal, transmitting the ultrasonic signal to a part to be detected of the thyroid gland and receiving an ultrasonic echo signal generated by the part to be detected of the thyroid gland;

The processing unit is used for processing the microwave thermoacoustic signals and the ultrasonic echo signals received by the ultrasonic transducer to obtain microwave thermoacoustic images and ultrasonic images, and superposing the microwave thermoacoustic images and the ultrasonic images to obtain thyroid form thermoacoustic functional images guided based on the ultrasonic imaging accurate anatomical positions;

the microwave excitation system and the ultrasonic emitter are connected with an ultrasonic transducer, the ultrasonic transducer is connected with a processing unit, the microwave excitation system, the ultrasonic emitter and the processing unit are connected with a computer, and the computer controls the microwave excitation system, the ultrasonic emitter and the processing unit to work through a specific pulse time sequence.

2. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the microwave excitation system comprises a microwave source and an antenna connected to each other, the microwave source is configured to emit a pulsed microwave signal, and the antenna is configured to transmit the pulsed microwave signal to the thyroid gland for excitation to generate the microwave thermoacoustic signal.

3. The apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the microwave source is an electro-vacuum device or a solid state source.

4. the microwave thermoacoustic and ultrasonic imaging-based thyroid detection device according to claim 2, wherein the antenna is a high power gain antenna, and the high power gain antenna may be a horn antenna, a patch antenna or a monopole antenna.

5. the thyroid detection device based on microwave thermoacoustic and ultrasonic imaging according to claim 1, wherein the center frequency of the pulse microwave signal is 0.1-10.0 GHz, the pulse width is 0.01-1.0 μ s, and the peak power is 50-100 kW.

6. the thyroid gland detection device based on microwave thermoacoustic and ultrasonic imaging according to claim 1, wherein the ultrasonic transducer comprises two flexible array transducers with a center frequency of 1-3.0 MHz and a bandwidth of 70%, a coverage angle of the flexible array transducer is 160.5 °, the flexible array transducer is composed of 64 wafers, a center frequency of the ultrasonic transducer is 3.5-8 MHz, a bandwidth of more than 60%, and the number of array elements is: 64. 128 or 256, and a gap is left between the two flexible array transducers for placing the ultrasonic transducer.

7. the thyroid detection device based on microwave thermoacoustic and ultrasonic imaging according to claim 1, wherein the processing unit performs signal filtering amplification, data acquisition and data processing on the microwave thermoacoustic signal and the ultrasonic echo signal.

8. a thyroid gland detection method based on microwave thermoacoustic and ultrasonic imaging is characterized by comprising the following steps:

s1, coating a medical ultrasonic coupling agent on the skin of the thyroid gland part of the person to be detected, covering a TPU film on the medical ultrasonic coupling agent, and coating transformer oil on the TPU film;

S2, starting the microwave source, and setting and initializing corresponding parameters of the microwave source through a computer;

S3, sequentially starting the ultrasonic emitter and the processing unit, carrying out ultrasonic imaging, positioning the thyroid gland position, and obtaining an ultrasonic image;

S4, adjusting the time sequence setting of the computer, delaying the preset time, and then performing microwave thermoacoustic imaging by using the microwave source, the ultrasonic transducer and the processing unit to obtain a microwave thermoacoustic image;

s5, the processing unit is used for superposing the microwave thermoacoustic image and the ultrasonic image, and the thyroid morphology and thermoacoustic functional image guided based on the ultrasonic imaging accurate anatomical position is obtained according to the superposed microwave thermoacoustic image and ultrasonic image.

9. The method for thyroid testing based on microwave thermoacoustic and ultrasonic imaging according to claim 8, wherein the thickness of the TPU thin film in step S1 is less than 0.05 mm.

Technical Field

the invention relates to the technical field of thyroid detection, in particular to a thyroid detection device and method based on microwave thermoacoustic and ultrasonic imaging.

Background

The thyroid gland is the largest endocrine gland of the human body and controls the synthesized thyroid hormone to maintain the normal metabolism of the body. Especially plays a crucial role in the aspects of nervous system metabolism, growth, development and maturation and the like. According to the american cancer society, the incidence of thyroid cancer in the united states has increased at a rate of 5% per year in 2003. Epidemiologists believe that thyroid cancer will become the fourth most prevalent cancer in the united states by 2030. Related studies have shown that the prevalence of thyroid nodules exceeds 60%. The malignant disease cases in all thyroid nodules found account for approximately 10% and consist primarily of differentiated thyroid carcinomas, including papillary thyroid carcinomas and follicular carcinomas. The key to thyroid nodule treatment is the early, highly accurate discovery of thyroid cancer.

The current common imaging methods clinically used for examining thyroid diseases include B-ultrasound, CT, MRI, Emission Computed Tomography (ECT), radionuclide imaging, and image-guided fine needle biopsy. While each of these inspection means has advantages, there are also deficiencies, such as: b-mode ultrasound is the most conventional examination method for thyroid diseases, but has a large dependence on the diagnosis skills of doctors, and cannot independently distinguish whether thyroid nodules are benign or malignant; the specificity, sensitivity and accuracy of MRI are higher than those of ultrasound, but MRI is not suitable for some special people, and the examination cost is higher, so that MRI is not suitable for long-term monitoring; although the fine needle biopsy under the image guidance is the gold standard for diagnosing thyroid nodules, the fine needle biopsy is invasive for patients; the high sensitivity of the thyroid itself to radiation also limits the radiation-dependent examination techniques of CT, ETC, radionuclide imaging, ETC.

Microwave thermoacoustic imaging (TAI) is a new non-invasive, non-ionizing, non-destructive imaging technique that has emerged in recent years. The technology is similar to the photoacoustic imaging basic theory, pulse microwave is used for irradiating the absorber, the absorber generates a thermotropic stretching effect after absorbing pulse microwave energy, an ultrasonic signal is further generated, and then the ultrasonic signal detected by the ultrasonic transducer is used for carrying out image reconstruction imaging on microwave energy absorption distribution in the absorber. The technique thus has both the high resolution of ultrasound imaging and the high contrast advantages of microwave imaging. The thermoacoustic effect is actually an energy conversion process according to a heat conduction equation and a wave equation, and is related to not only a microwave source, but also thermodynamics and dielectric properties of a measured substance. Related researches show that the pathological change tissue of the human thyroid has the changes of uneven thickness of an envelope, fibrosis of the envelope, change of the size of a tissue follicular cavity, increase or decrease of colloid in the cavity, calcification in tissue cells and the like compared with the normal tissue, so that the pathological change tissue and the normal tissue have larger dielectric difference, and different benign pathological change and malignant tumor tissues also have larger dielectric property difference, thereby providing a theoretical basis for detecting the thyroid by a microwave thermoacoustic imaging technology and being expected to independently distinguish the benign and malignant tumors of the thyroid.

Disclosure of Invention

Aiming at the defects in the prior art, the thyroid detection device and method based on microwave thermoacoustic and ultrasonic imaging provided by the invention solve the problem of inaccurate thyroid morphology detection result.

In order to achieve the purpose of the invention, the invention adopts the technical scheme that: a thyroid detection device based on microwave thermoacoustic and ultrasonic imaging comprises:

The microwave excitation system is used for emitting pulse microwave signals by the microwave source and radiating the thyroid gland by the pulse microwave signals to generate microwave thermoacoustic signals;

The ultrasonic transmitter is used for exciting the ultrasonic transducer to send out an ultrasonic signal;

The ultrasonic transducer is used for receiving microwave thermoacoustic signals generated by the thyroid; the ultrasonic signal transmitting device is used for receiving an excitation signal sent by the ultrasonic transmitter to generate an ultrasonic signal, transmitting the ultrasonic signal to a part to be detected of the thyroid gland and receiving an ultrasonic echo signal generated by the part to be detected of the thyroid gland;

the processing unit is used for processing the microwave thermoacoustic signals and the ultrasonic echo signals received by the ultrasonic transducer to obtain microwave thermoacoustic images and ultrasonic images, and superposing the microwave thermoacoustic images and the ultrasonic images to obtain thyroid form thermoacoustic functional images guided based on the ultrasonic imaging accurate anatomical positions;

the microwave excitation system and the ultrasonic emitter are connected with an ultrasonic transducer, the ultrasonic transducer is connected with a processing unit, the microwave excitation system, the ultrasonic emitter and the processing unit are connected with a computer, and the computer controls the microwave excitation system, the ultrasonic emitter and the processing unit to work through a specific pulse time sequence.

further: the microwave excitation system comprises a microwave source and an antenna which are connected with each other, the microwave source is used for emitting pulse microwave signals, and the antenna is used for transmitting the pulse microwave signals to thyroid gland for excitation to generate microwave thermoacoustic signals.

further: the microwave source may be an electric vacuum based device (e.g. magnetron) or a solid state source.

Further: the antenna is a high-power gain antenna, and the high-power gain antenna can be a horn antenna, a patch antenna or a monopole antenna.

Further: the center frequency of the pulse microwave signal is 0.1-10.0 GHz, the pulse width is 0.01-1.0 mu s, and the peak power is 50-100 kW.

further: the ultrasonic transducer comprises two flexible array transducers with the center frequency of 1-3.0 MHz and the bandwidth of 70%, the coverage angle of the flexible array transducers is 160.5 degrees, the flexible array transducers are composed of 64 wafers, the center frequency of the ultrasonic transducer is 3.5-8 MHz, the bandwidth is more than 60%, and the number of the array elements is as follows: 64. 128 or 256, and a gap is left between the two flexible array transducers for placing the ultrasonic transducer.

Further: the processing unit is used for carrying out signal filtering amplification, data acquisition and data processing on the microwave thermoacoustic signals and the ultrasonic echo signals.

A thyroid detection method based on microwave thermoacoustic and ultrasonic imaging comprises the following steps:

s1, coating a medical ultrasonic coupling agent on the skin of the thyroid gland part of the person to be detected, covering a TPU film on the medical ultrasonic coupling agent, and coating transformer oil on the TPU film;

S2, starting the microwave source, and setting and initializing corresponding parameters of the microwave source through a computer;

S3, sequentially starting the ultrasonic emitter and the processing unit, carrying out ultrasonic imaging, positioning the thyroid gland position, and obtaining an ultrasonic image;

s4, adjusting the time sequence setting of the computer, delaying the preset time, and then performing microwave thermoacoustic imaging by using the microwave source, the ultrasonic transducer and the processing unit to obtain a microwave thermoacoustic image;

S5, the processing unit is used for superposing the microwave thermoacoustic image and the ultrasonic image, and the thyroid morphology and thermoacoustic functional image guided based on the ultrasonic imaging accurate anatomical position is obtained according to the superposed microwave thermoacoustic image and ultrasonic image.

Further: the thickness of the TPU film in step S1 is less than 0.05 mm.

The invention has the beneficial effects that: according to the method, the microwave thermoacoustic image of the thyroid form is obtained by means of a microwave thermoacoustic imaging technology, and then the microwave thermoacoustic image and the ultrasonic image are superposed, so that the microwave thermoacoustic image and the ultrasonic image are simultaneously displayed in the same image, and the thyroid form image and thermoacoustic functional image display guided by the accurate anatomical position based on ultrasonic imaging is completed. The advantages of the invention are as follows:

1. The method can perform noninvasive quantitative imaging detection on the thyroid morphology, is convenient to operate and has high visualization degree; can provide reference for the diagnosis and treatment of thyroid gland.

2. The invention provides a technology for detecting the thyroid form by microwave thermoacoustic imaging and ultrasonic imaging, and the microwave thermoacoustic image with higher sensitivity to the thyroid form difference is superposed on an ultrasonic image, thereby being beneficial to accurately evaluating the whole thyroid form.

Drawings

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a flow chart of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a pulse time sequence diagram for thermoacoustic imaging and ultrasound imaging in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 4 shows the result of microwave thermoacoustic/ultrasonic bimodal imaging of human thyroid.

Detailed Description

The following description of the embodiments of the present invention is provided to facilitate the understanding of the present invention by those skilled in the art, but it should be understood that the present invention is not limited to the scope of the embodiments, and it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various changes may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined and defined in the appended claims, and all matters produced by the invention using the inventive concept are protected.

As shown in fig. 1, a thyroid gland detecting device based on microwave thermoacoustic and ultrasonic imaging comprises:

the microwave excitation system is used for sending out pulse microwave signals and radiating thyroid gland through the pulse microwave signals to generate microwave thermoacoustic signals; the microwave excitation system comprises a microwave source and an antenna which are connected with each other. The microwave source can be based on an electric vacuum device (such as a magnetron) or a solid source, the center frequency of a pulse microwave signal is 0.1-10.0 GHz, the pulse width is 0.01-1.0 mu s, and the peak power is 50-100 kW. The microwave source has a pulse width and peak power that satisfy thermal and pressure limits, and microwave energy less than IEEE (Std C95.1)^TM2005) the safe irradiation power value. The antenna is a high power gain antenna, which may be a horn antenna, a patch antenna, or a monopole antenna. During microwave thermoacoustic imaging, pulse microwave signals are emitted by a microwave source and transmitted to the thyroid to be detected through an antenna.

the ultrasonic transmitter is used for exciting the ultrasonic transducer to send out an ultrasonic signal; the imaging mode of the ultrasonic transmitter is a B mode, the ultrasonic transmitter supports 128 channels with the maximum channel number, but the ultrasonic transmitter can be controlled by a multiplexing switch to excite 2048 channels of ultrasonic transducers to transmit ultrasonic signals; the ultrasonic transmitter supports the transmission frequency of 0.1-20MHz and the maximum transmission voltage of 200V.

The ultrasonic transducer is used for receiving microwave thermoacoustic signals generated by the thyroid; the ultrasonic signal transmitting device is used for receiving an excitation signal sent by the ultrasonic transmitter to generate an ultrasonic signal, transmitting the ultrasonic signal to a part to be detected of the thyroid gland and receiving an ultrasonic echo signal generated by the part to be detected of the thyroid gland; the ultrasonic transducer comprises two flexible array transducers with the center frequency of 1-3.0 MHz and the bandwidth of 70%, the coverage angle of the flexible array transducers is 160.5 degrees, and the flexible array transducers are composed of 64 wafers in total. The central frequency of a transducer used for ultrasonic imaging is 3.5-8 MHz, the bandwidth is more than 60%, and the number of array elements is as follows: 64. 128 or 256. A gap is reserved between the two flexible array transducers for placing the transducer used for ultrasonic imaging. During ultrasonic imaging, an ultrasonic signal is emitted by an ultrasonic emitter to excite an ultrasonic transducer and is transmitted to a thyroid part to be detected.

the processing unit is used for processing the microwave thermoacoustic signals and the ultrasonic echo signals received by the ultrasonic transducer to obtain microwave thermoacoustic images and ultrasonic images, and superposing the microwave thermoacoustic images and the ultrasonic images to obtain thyroid form thermoacoustic functional images guided based on the ultrasonic imaging accurate anatomical positions; the processing unit carries out signal filtering amplification, data acquisition and data processing on the microwave thermoacoustic signals and the ultrasonic echo signals. In the microwave thermoacoustic and ultrasonic imaging processes, microwave thermoacoustic signals and ultrasonic echo signals are received by the same ultrasonic transducer at the same position, are transmitted to a data acquisition card for A/D conversion after being filtered and amplified, and are stored in a computer; the bandwidth of the filter is 0.01-7.5MHz, the gain of the amplifier is more than 60dB, and the acquisition card: 10-50MHz sampling rate, 1-256 sampling channels, 10-16bit sampling resolution.

The microwave excitation system and the ultrasonic emitter are connected with an ultrasonic transducer, the ultrasonic transducer is connected with a processing unit, the microwave excitation system, the ultrasonic emitter and the processing unit are connected with a computer, and the computer controls the microwave excitation system, the ultrasonic emitter and the processing unit to work through a specific pulse time sequence.

As shown in fig. 2, a thyroid gland detection method based on microwave thermoacoustic and ultrasonic imaging comprises the following steps:

s1, coating a medical ultrasonic coupling agent on the skin of the thyroid gland part of the person to be detected, covering a TPU film on the medical ultrasonic coupling agent, and coating transformer oil on the TPU film; the thickness of the TPU film is less than 0.05 mm.

S2, starting the microwave source, and setting and initializing corresponding parameters of the microwave source through a computer;

S3, sequentially starting the ultrasonic emitter and the processing unit, carrying out ultrasonic imaging, positioning the thyroid gland position, and obtaining an ultrasonic image;

S4, adjusting the time sequence setting of the computer, delaying the preset time, and then performing microwave thermoacoustic imaging by using the microwave source, the ultrasonic transducer and the processing unit to obtain a microwave thermoacoustic image;

s5, the processing unit is used for superposing the microwave thermoacoustic image and the ultrasonic image, and the thyroid morphology and thermoacoustic functional image guided based on the ultrasonic imaging accurate anatomical position is obtained according to the superposed microwave thermoacoustic image and ultrasonic image.

During ultrasonic imaging: the thyroid gland and the surrounding organs have acoustic impedance difference; therefore, the ultrasonic transmitter excites the ultrasonic waves transmitted by the ultrasonic transducer, interface reflection can be generated on the interface between the thyroid and different visceral organs, the reflected ultrasonic echo signals are received by the ultrasonic transducer, each wafer of the ultrasonic transducer receives the ultrasonic signals from different areas of the same plane, and the ultrasonic signals received by all channels are acquired by the data acquisition module after being filtered and amplified and are stored in the computer for subsequent data processing.

During microwave thermoacoustic imaging: as shown in fig. 3, the computer is controlled by a pulse time sequence, after the ultrasonic imaging is finished, the microwave source is triggered to emit a pulse microwave signal after a period of time (usually tens of ms) is delayed, the pulse microwave signal is irradiated onto the thyroid tissue through the antenna, and the thyroid tissue generates a thermoacoustic effect due to absorption of the pulse microwave energy, and is excited to generate an ultrasonic signal. Because the pathological thyroid tissue and the normal tissue have larger dielectric difference and different benign pathological and malignant tumor tissues also have larger dielectric property difference, the microwave thermoacoustic signals and the thermoacoustic images can reflect the difference of thyroid forms. Each wafer of the ultrasonic transducer receives microwave thermoacoustic signals from different areas of the same thyroid plane, and the microwave thermoacoustic signals received by all channels are acquired by the data acquisition module after signal filtering and amplification and stored in the computer for subsequent data processing.

fig. 4 shows the result of microwave thermoacoustic/ultrasonic bimodal imaging of a simulated human thyroid using the device of the present invention. FIG. 4(a) shows the results of thermoacoustic imaging with the top bright band being the skin; fig. 4(b) is an ultrasonic imaging result. By comparison, the thyroid gland of (a) and (b) had better shape matching.