Medical system and a device based on microwave technology for prevention and diagnosis of diseases

Abstract

The system comprising an internal unit (10) comprising two arrays of N transmitter and N receiver antennas (11R, 11T) for transmitting a microwave signal(s) to one or more body tissues of a patient and for detecting a scattered microwave signal(s) by said one or more body tissues; feeding and multiplexing means (12) in connection with said N transmitter and N receiver antennas (11T, 11R) and with an external computing unit (20) configured to receive said scattered microwave signal(s) and convert it/them into an image, wherein the feeding and multiplexing means (12) provide, under the control of a controller (21) of the external computing unit (20), a continuous sequential selection of different pairs of transmitter and receiver antennas (11T, 11R) to perform the transmission of the microwave signal(s) and the detection of the scattered microwave signal(s).

Claims

1. A medical system based on microwave technology for prevention and diagnosis of diseases, said system comprising: an internal unit which, in use, is introduced within a body passage of a patient, said internal unit including: a first array of N transmitter antennas configured to transmit a first energy signal to one or more body tissues and a second array of N receiver antennas configured to detect a second energy signal scattered by the one or more body tissues, said first and second energy signals comprising microwave signals; and feeding and multiplexing elements in connection with the N transmitter and N receiver antennas and with an external computing unit, wherein the N transmitter and N receiver antennas and the feeding and multiplexing elements are arranged on a same electronic substrate having two faces, the N transmitter and N receiver antennas being positioned on one of said two faces and the feeding and multiplexing elements being positioned on the other face; and said external computing unit which, in use, is located outside the body of the patient and connected with said internal unit to receive said second energy signal detected by said internal unit and to convert said received second energy signal into an image, wherein the feeding and multiplexing elements are configured to provide, under the control of a controller that the external computing unit comprises, a continuous sequential selection of different pairs of transmitter and receiver antennas to perform the transmission of the microwave signal and the detection of the scattered microwave signal.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the feeding and multiplexing elements comprise a Radiofrequency switch and N Radiofrequency lines for each of said first and second arrays, such that each of the N transmitter antennas is connected to a first Radiofrequency switch using a first set of N Radiofrequency lines and each of the N receiver antennas is connected to a second Radiofrequency switch using a second set of N Radiofrequency lines.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the first array comprises at least two transmitter antennas and wherein the second array comprises at least two receiver antennas.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the controller of the external computing unit is configured to select at each continuous sequential selection a single pair of transmitter and receiver antennas.

5. The system of claim 1, further comprising a protective shell configured to protect the first and second arrays and the feeding and multiplexing elements.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the external computing unit is connected through a wired connection to said feeding and multiplexing elements.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the external computing unit is connected through a wireless connection to said feeding and multiplexing elements.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the internal unit is of a cylindrical shape to be coupled to an endoscope tube.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

(1) The previous and other advantages and features will be more fully understood from the following detailed description of embodiments, with reference to the attached figures, which must be considered in an illustrative and non-limiting manner, in which:

(2) FIG. 1 illustrates in a simplified way a medical system based on microwave technology for prevention and diagnosis of diseases according to an embodiment of the present invention.

(3) FIG. 2 is a schematic block diagram illustrating some of the units/modules provided by the proposed medical system according to the teachings of present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

(4) FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of the proposed architecture of the medical system of the invention for prevention and diagnosis of diseases such as cancers, among any other pathologies/diseases.

(5) According to said embodiment, present invention comprises an internal unit 10, preferably of a cylindrical shape (not limitative as other geometric shapes are also possible) that can be coupled to an endoscope or catheter tube 14, to be introduced, in use, within a body passage (or internal area) of a patient (not illustrated) such as the colon, the stomach, the esophagus, the trachea, etc., and an external computing unit 20 such as a PC operatively connected to the internal unit 10 for signal generation 23, signal receiving 22, storage, processing 24 and display 25 (see FIG. 2).

(6) The internal unit 10 according to this embodiment comprises one linear array of four transmitter antennas 11T configured and arranged for transmitting a microwave signal (or signals) to one or more body tissues of the patient, a linear array of four receiver antennas 11R configured and arranged for detecting a microwave signal (or signals) scattered by the one or more body tissues, feeding and multiplexing means 12 in connection with the four transmitter and receiver antennas 11T, 11R and with the external computing unit 20, and a protective shell 13 enclosing the antennas 11T, 11R and the feeding and multiplexing means 12.

(7) The three parts of the internal unit 10 (i.e. the two linear arrays of transmitter and receiver antennas 11T, 11R, the feeding and multiplexing means 12 and the protective shell 13) are specifically designed taking into account important constraints of size and reprocessing of medical devices.

(8) According to said embodiment, the two linear arrays of transmitter and receiver antennas 11T, 11R are printed on a top layer of an electronic substrate and the feeding and multiplexing means 12 on the bottom layer of said electronic substrate. The receiving array 11R is set below the transmitting array 11T, has the same characteristics and is separated at a distance of at least half a wavelength to reduce the coupling between the arrays of antennas. The transmitter and receiver antennas 11T, 11R are preferably compact printed slots.

(9) The feeding and multiplexing means 12 are composed by a Radiofrequency (RF) switch 12A and N RF transmission lines 12B for each array of transmitter 11T and receiver 11R antennas.

(10) The outer protective shell 13 is designed to achieve good sealing and resistance to disinfectants used in the process of high-level disinfection.

(11) It has to be noted that even the embodiment of FIG. 1 comprises only four transmitter 11T and four receiver antennas 11R present invention is not limited to this configuration, as other amount of pairs of antennas are also possible, for instance a configuration 2×2 (two transmitter and two receiver antennas), 3×3 (three transmitter and three receiver antennas), 5×5 (five transmitter and five receiver antennas), 8×8 (eight transmitter and eight receiver antennas), among others. Equally, even though in the embodiment of FIG. 1 the array is a linear array, other array configuration may be also possible without departing from the scope of protection of present invention.

(12) To form a cross-sectional image of the body tissue of the patient being irradiated, the body tissue has to be irradiated from all the directions (360°). To do so, the transmitter and receiver antennas 11T, 11R are controlled by a controller 21 (see FIG. 2), such as a micro-controller, of the external computing device 20, through the feeding and multiplexing means 12, i.e. through the RF switches 12A and RF transmission lines 12B, to perform the emission and detection of microwave signals via a continuous selection. The controller 21 continuously selects pairs of antennas (transmitter-receiver) for performing the microwave signal emission and the microwave signal detection. Preferably, at each continuous selection a single pair of transmitter-receiver antennas 11T, 11R is selected, repeating the process until enough signals are collected to form the image of the irradiated body tissue.

(13) The generation of the microwave signal and the selection of the transmitting and receiving antennas 11T, 11R is performed automatically and synchronized with the transmission and acquisition by the external computing device 20.

(14) According to this embodiment, the microwave signals are generated by the external computing device 20 and delivered to the internal unit 10 by means of a wired connection including a thin coaxial cable 30 along the endoscope or catheter tube 14 as illustrated in FIG. 1. Alternatively, the wired connection instead of said coaxial cable 30 may include a fiber optical cable.

(15) The scattered signals received by the external computing unit 20 from the receiver antennas 11R are processed with microwave image reconstruction algorithms including frequency and time-domain dielectric property estimation methods, radar methods or tomographic imaging. Microwave information will be combined with the existing endoscopic visualization tools providing all the available data with the same interface, which can include video, microwave imaging, endoscope tracking, and previous CT imaging.

(16) According to an alternative embodiment, in this case not illustrated, the microwave signals generated by the external computing device 20 are delivered to the internal unit 10 via wireless technology (i.e. no cables are present between the external computing device 20 and the internal unit 10). At the device, then the transmitting signal is multiplexed and delivered to the transmitting antennas 11T through the feeding and multiplexing means 12.

(17) The invention further refers to a device 10, preferably of a cylindrical shape, which in use, is introduced within a body passage of a patient (e.g. the colon) and configured and adapted to work with microwave technology (approximately 3 to 10 GHz) for prevention and diagnosis of diseases. The device 10, comprises two arrays of N transmitter and N receiver antennas 11T, 11R which, in use, are configured to emit, by the transmitter antennas 11R, a first microwave signal to one or more body tissues and to detect, by the receiver antennas 11R, a second microwave signal scattered by said one or more body tissues; and feeding and multiplexing means 12 in connection with said N transmitter and N receiver antennas 11T, 11R and with an external computing unit 20 such as a PC.

(18) The scope of the present invention is defined in the following set of claims.