Miniature Probe


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Miniature Probe
CAD Model created in Solidworks
Animation created in Jasc Animation Shop

This is a device that was invented by Fred Silverstein and Andrew Proctor
United States Patent 5,178,150

An endoscope is a device placed down your throat, used to examine your digestive system
(esophogas, intestines, or stomach). It uses fiber-optics to
send light down and additional fiber-optics to return an image to the doctor. During an
exam, if they see an abnormality, they may want to examine what is under the
tissue. Fiber-optics can't do this, but ultrasound can. The endoscopes have
another tube in them, called a biopsy channel. They can use this tube to send down an
instrument to cut out tissue to be tested, or they can send down a small
ultrasound device such as this one to do further examination before taking tissue.

The biggest problem is that to do an ultrasound, you need to have space
between the transducer (that's the part of the probe that actually does the
scanning) and what you are trying to scan - this is called acoustic standoff. Since the tube
is so narrow, you can't send something down that would be big enough to
provide this standoff. The idea of this device is that the balloon
around the transducer is filled with fluid. It passes down the endoscope's
biopsy channel in the stretched out state. Then, once it's inside and ready to scan, part
of it is pushed forward, forcing the balloon to "blow up". Now, there's space around
the transducer, and the transducer can scan the area. When they're ready to remove it,
they pull it back so it's in the enlonged state, and bring it back out.

We made a C.A.D. model of the device and this animation
for marketing purposes for Washington Research Foundation