Importance

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Abstract

An ultrasonic angioscope system which uses an imaging technique of sending ultrasonic waves to a portion ahead of a stricture of a blood vessel and visualizing a portion in the forward direction of the angioscope, and which uses a laser breakdown is provided. The ultrasonic angioscope system includes: a laser generating device (11) installed outside the human body; a probe (20) that introduces laser beams (13) emitted from the laser generating device (11) into a blood vessel (1) via an optical fiber (12), is set at the tip of the optical fiber (12), and has a lens (14) and a water tank (15) as a dielectric; ultrasonic-wave generating means that uses a laser breakdown (16) produced in the water tank (15); a plurality of hydrophones (18) that receive reflected waves, of ultrasonic waves emitted by the laser breakdown (16), from a stricture portion (2) of a blood vessel (1), and are disposed at the tip end of the probe (20); and means of forming a stricture-shaped image of the stricture portion (2) based on the signals received from the hydrophones (18) by a synthetic aperture method.

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First Claim