Patent ID: 9271695
Filing Date: 2016-03-01
CPC Classification: A61B

Claim Text:
1. A subject information acquisition apparatus comprising: a pair of holding plates adapted to hold and sandwich a subject; an acoustic matching member provided on one of said holding plates and having a flexible bag and an acoustic matching agent stored in the flexible bag; and a probe adapted to be positioned to receive acoustic waves from the subject, said probe being located in opposition to said acoustic matching member with said one of the pair of holding plates between said probe and said acoustic matching member, wherein said flexible bag has a first portion facing the other of the pair of holding plates adapted to contact the subject and a second portion detachably secured to said one of the pair of holding plates, the second portion having higher rigidity than the first portion, wherein both said first portion and said second portion are located on an acoustic wave propagation path such that acoustic waves are adapted to be propagated from the subject to said probe through said first portion, said acoustic matching agent and said second portion in that order, and wherein said first portion and said second portion are made of the same material, and said second portion has a thickness greater than that of said first portion to provide said higher rigidity.