Patent ID: 7785276

Claim:
A hit control system for a lithotripter, the hit-control system being configured to monitor effects of a shockwave treatment to a target area inside a body of a patient, the system comprising: a shockwave generator that generates a shockwave for treatment of the target area; an ultrasonic transmitting/receiving unit comprising an ultrasonic transducer configured to emit ultrasonic pulses and to receive ultrasonic waves reflected from the target area during shockwave treatment of the target area; and an evaluating unit, in communication with the ultrasonic transmitting/receiving unit, that determines a correlation coefficient K of a time correlation between a first reflected ultrasonic wave and a second reflected ultrasonic wave, the reflected ultrasonic waves corresponding to successively emitted ultrasonic pulses that are reflected in the target area in which a target object is located, and the correlation being determined for a certain interval of time, wherein the evaluating unit provides a signal related to the correlation coefficient K, wherein at least one of a display device fed with the signal related to the correlation coefficient K, an alarm device fed with and responsive to an error signal produced by the evaluating unit and related to the coefficient K, or the shockwave generator, so as to stop or continue the generation of shockwaves dependent on an error signal produced by the evaluating unit and related to the coefficient K, is connected to the evaluating unit.