Ultrasound in Med. & Biol. Vol. 17, No. 6, pp. 647--648, 1991 Printed in the U.S.A.

0301-5629/91 $3.00 + .00 © 1991 Pergamon Press pie

NEW PATENTS

This Section contains abstracts and, where appropriate, illustrations of recently issued United States patents and published patent applications filed from over 30 countries under the Patent Cooperation Treaty. This information was obtained from recent additions to the Pergamon PATSEARCH ® online database in accordance with interest profiles developed by the Editors. Further information about Pergamon PATSEARCH ® can be obtained from Pergamon Orbit InfoLine Inc., 8000 Westpark Drive, McLean, Virginia 22102, U.S.A.

Copies of complete patents announced in this Section are available from Pergamon Orbit InfoLine Inc. for $8 per'copy. Payment with order is required. Orders outside North America add $2 for air postage. Order by patent number for Pergamon Orbit InfoLine only.

4938216

M E C H A N I C A L L Y S C A N N E D L I N E - F O C U S U L T R A S O U N D H Y P E R T H E R M I A S Y S T E M

Padmakar Lele assigned to Massachusetts In- stitute of Technology

A therapeutic hyperthermia system generates a line-focus beam of ultrasound which can be mechanically scanned across a treatment volume of tissue. The ultilization of a line-focus advan- tageously reduces the peak intensity of the ul- trasonic beam. The system includes methods of scanning the line-focus beam to provide optimal treatment protocols for deep tumors and other pathological conditions while minimizing damage in overlying body tissues. The utilization of mechanical scanning reduces the number of transducers, amplifiers and associated elec- tronics required.

4938225

U L T R A S O N I C E C H O G R A P H U T I L I Z I N G A T L E A S T O N E

P I E Z O E L E C T R I C T R A N S D U C E R W I T H AN A S S O C I A T E D R A N D O M

P H A S E S C R E E N , A N D M E T H O D O F S C A N N I N G A N O B J E C T BY

M E A N S O F S U C H A N E C H O G R A P H

Mathias Fink, Strasbourg, France assigned to U S Philips Corporation

The ultrasonic echograph comprises at least one piezoelectric transducer (10, 13) for the transmis- sion and/or reception of an ultrasonic scanning beam (20). With at least one piezoelectric trans-

647

ducer (10) there is associated a random phase screen (11) which is arranged in the ultrasonic scanning beam (20) and which is displaceable with respect to the axis of this beam. Means are provided for the recording of an echographic line e(t) for each position (alpha) of said random phase screen. The major technical effect of the presence of the random phase screen in the ul- trasonic beam path is the disturbing of the coherence of the wave traversing the screen. Applications can be found notably in medical ul- trasonic echography and non-destructive testing of materials.

4938827

P R E P A R A T I O N O F A S I L I C O N E R U B B E R - P O L Y E S T E R

C O M P O S I T E P R O D U C T S

Jerry Leach, Edward C Parnagian, Gary A Seavey assigned to Hewlett-Packard Company

Disclosed is a process for the preparation of a composite including a room temperature vul- canizing silicone rubber and a chemically resistant polyester film which may be polyethy- lene terephthalate. The composite has particular utility as a part of medical equipment, for ex- ample as a component in an ultrasonic trans- ducer. The susceptibility of the composite bond so formed to chemical challenge in the user en- vironment is reduced or eliminated.

4941474

M U L T I V A R I A B L E A N A L Y S I S O F B O N E C O N D I T I O N

George W Pratt assigned to Massachusetts In- stitute of Technology

648 New Patents

A system for analyzing bone conditions, par- ticularly (but not solely) for diagnosing osteoporosis and periodontal bone disease in humans. An ultrasonic signal (generally a pulse) having components in a range from about 50 kHz to about 600 kHz (and preferably to about 3 MHz) is launched transdermal!y into a bony member such as the patella, and received after passage therethrough. Scattering of the incident wave energy in the bony member, and absorp- tion and phase delay in the tissue, cause the transmission to vary in both amplitude and phase as a function of frequency. A multi- variable analysis is performed on a plurality of variables characterizing the signals transmitted through, reflected from or scattered by the bony member and soft tissue. The measured para- meter values characterize the bone architecture and are compared with the statistics for one or more groups having known bone condition, to yield a probabilistic diagnosis of bone condition. The measured variables include the area, width at half power and peak frequency of the received power spectrum, as well as the second, third and fourth moments of the received spectrum, skew- ness, kurtosis and the propagation velocity through the bony member.

4942878

L O C A L I Z A T I O N M E T H O D A N D DEVICE FOR DETERMINING THE

DEGREE OF F R A G M E N T A T I O N O F S T O N E S

Jacques Dory, 77450 Coupvray, France

The disclosure relates to apparatus for localizing the fragments of stones associated to a lithotrite comprising a spherical focussing cup acting as a power transducer and an auxiliary transducer subjected to a sectorial scanning and mounted at the center of the cup and coupled to an echography device. The apparatus comprises an auxiliary generator for exciting the power trans- ducer with pulses generated at a frequency of a few hertz and at a power reduced with respect to that of the shootings. During the emission of the pulses with reduced power, the receiver of the echographic device is connected to an auxiliary cathode tube which forms an A echography im- age in order to localize the fragments of stones.