US2718598A - Diagnostic x-ray apparatus - Google Patents

Description

Sept. 20, 19 55 H, GRAF 2,718,598

DIAGNOSTIC X-RAY APPARATUS I Filed March 10, 1955 United States Patent DIAGNOSTIC X-RAY APPARATUS Herbert Graf, Erlangen, Germany Application March 10, 1953, Serial No. 341,527 Claims priority, application Germany April 12, 1952 9 Claims. (Cl. 25058) This invention is concerned with diagnostic X-ray apparatus comprising a device for protecting the operator against random radiation and means for adjusting the position of such device in accordance with the angular position of the carrier for the viewing screen.

Diagnostic X-ray apparatus are provided with devices for shielding the operator against detrimental radiation. In fluoroscopy, the effective radiation is in back of the patient absorbed by a plate of lead glass which is connected with the screen. The random radiation emanating from the irradiated portion of the patients body is in the examination of patients in upright position caught by a device, disposed underneath the screen, which usually comprises a plurality of mutually overlapping rubberized lead strips. Such a protective device is also used in apparatus for examining patients in horizontal position in which case the device is fastened on a portion of the side of the screen frame.

Apparatus which are adjustable about a horizontal axis for alternate use either with patients in upright or in horizontal position have increasingly replaced the separate apparatus provided for these purposes in the past. The device for protecting against random radiation must in such cases be manually transferred from the bottom portion of the screen frame to a side frame portion incident to placing the apparatus from the upright into an angular position.

A diagnostic procedure has increasingly found favor in which the patient is brought from a vertical position by way of adjustable angularly inclined positions to a horizontal position and then beyond the horizontal with the head in a low position.

The examination is carried out in a darkened room and the manual transfer of the protective device causes difliculties. In addition, the protective device does not provide for sufficient protection of the operator in the positions which are intermediate the vertical and horizontal positions.

The invention avoids these drawbacks by the provision, on the screen or the screen frame or carrier, especially on the frame or carrier for a fluorescent screen, of a rail member, for the protective device, extending at least along two sides of the screen frame so that the protective device may be brought along such rail member into a protective position which corresponds to the position of the operator and to the adjusted angular position of the diagnostic apparatus.

Suitable motor means may be provided for automatically carrying out the adjustment of the protective device so as to secure proper positioning thereof incident to the adjustment of the angular positions of the apparatus.

An embodiment of the invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying diagrammatic drawings, wherein Fig. 1 shows in schematic elevational view the fluorescent screen associated with an X-ray apparatus comprising a table which is adjustable from a substantially verti- 2,718,598 Patented Sept. 20, 1955 lapping striplike members 4 made of material such as rubberized lead which is impermeable to the rays. The lower ends of the individual strips may be held together by a continuous rubber band or the like, in such a manner that they do not part while enabling the operator to reach therethrough for the purpose of manipulating the patient.

The protective device 3 is movably provided on the tubular rail 5 by means of rollers 6. The rail 5 is fastened to the frame 2 by holder members 7. Each individual strip is in the illustrated example suspended from a roller 6 which is disposed midway thereof and rides on the rail 5.

As will be seen from Fig. 3, each rubberized lead strip may be provided with a reinforcing strip member 8 which is journalled on the bolt 9'of the associated roller. The reinforcing sheet may be curved as indicated in Fig. 3 so that the major portion of the strip is disposed underneath the roller axis.

Upon the carrier bolt 9 may also be provided a securing element 10 for preventing the slipping off of the associated roller from the guide rail 5. The individual rollers are secured in their mutually spaced positions by the members 11 which are disposed on the respective bolts. The individual strips of the protective device thus form a common shield.

In the upright position of the table (not shown) of the diagnostic apparatus, the protective device assumes the position shown in Fig. 1. When the table is placed in an angular inclined position, the protective device can be easily shifted into a corresponding shielding position.

The shifting of the protective device may be carried out manually or automatically.

For the automatic shifting, the invention provides a motor device comprising a spring controlled drive having a coiled spring 12 disposed in the tubular guide rail 5. One end 13 of the spring is secured to the holder 7 on the upper frame portion, as seen in Fig. 1. The other end of the spring is provided with a hook 14 or the like, as shown in Fig. 4, which is in engagement with the guide roller 6 for the last rubberized lead strip shown in Fig. l on the extreme right and which is guided in a slot in the guide rail 5.

In the upright position of the table of the X-ray apparatus with which the fluorescent screen 1 is associated, the spring 12 is extended by the weight of the protective device. Upon moving the support or table for the patient into angular position, the force of the spring will become effective in accordance with the progressive reduc tion of the downward pull of the weight of the protective device on the spring, due to the coincident change in the position of the guide rail, and the device will consequently be automatically shifted always into the corresponding shielding position by the pulling force of the spring.

In the terminal position, with the table and patient horizontal or with the head of the patient in a low position, the right end portion of the protective device will be on the guide rail 5 adjacent the lower left edge of the screen, as seen in Fig. 1, thereby placing the shielding device in alignment with the corresponding position of the operator diagonally of the apparatus.

In place of the described automatic shifting of the device by spring force, there-may of course be provided suitable other motor means, e. g., electro-magnetically operable motormeans or suitable motor means operated by compressed air. I

The protective device may be disposed on a desired side of the table of the X-ray apparatus. The mounting may also be constructed so that the protective device may be selectively shifted from the position shown in Fig. 1 along either side of the table responsive to tilting the table from vertical to inclined and horizontal position, respectively.

I claim:

1. Diagnostic X-ray apparatus having a table for a patient which is angularly adjustable to place the patient from a substantially vertical position through intermediate positions into a substantially horizontal position and vice versa and having a'generally rectangular frame which is associated with said table and angularly adjustable therewith coincident with the angular adjustment thereof and having a device for protection against random outward radiation, said device comprising an arcuate guide rail embracing an arc of at least 180 and extending alongside of at least two sides of said frame substantially between two diagonally disposed corners thereof, and radiation protection means movably disposed on said guide rail for displacement relative to said fluorescent screen in accordance with the angular position thereof.

2. The structure defined in claim 1, comprising means for automatically displacing said radiation protection means on said guide rail incident to the angular adjustment of said table and associated screen;

3. The structure defined in claim 1, comprising roller means for movably disposing said radiation protection means on said arcuate guide rail.

'4. The structure defined in claim 1, comprising a tubular member which constitutes said arcuate guide rail.

5. The structure defined in claim 1, comprising a a fluorescent screen provided in 1 tubular member which constitutes said arcuate guide rail, and a spring disposed in said tubular member for automatically displacing said radiation protection means in accordance with the angular adjustment of said table and associated screen.

6. The structure defined in claim 1, wherein said radiation protection means comprises a plurality of striplike members, and roller means for movably supporting each striplike member on said arcuate guide rail to form a movable shield depending therefrom.

7. The structure defined in claim 6, comprising a shield for securing each roller in movable engagement with said arcuate guide rail.

8. The structure defined in claim 6, comprising a tubular member constituting said acuate guide rail, a tension spring disposed in said tubular member, one end of said spring being fastened to said tubular member at one end thereof, a hooklike member secured to and extending from the other end of said spring and engaging a roller of one of said striplike shield members, the weight of said striplike shield members extending said spring in one extreme angular position of said table and associated screen and the pull of said spring being eifective during the angular adjustment of said table in the direction of the other extreme angular position thereof for automatically displacing said shields.

9. The structure defined in claim 6, comprising means for securing said roller means in movable engagement with said guide rail, and means for reinforcing each striplike member and for securing the position thereof.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,907,523 Egrcssi May 9, 1933 2,135,019 Struck Nov. 1, 1938 2,567,566 Kizaur Sept. 11, 1951 FOREIGN PATENTS 319,940 Great Britain Oct. 3, 1929

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