KR101570194B1 - Method and apparatus for obtaining tissue velocities and direction - Google Patents

Abstract

Acquiring vector Doppler data from a target object by transmitting and receiving an ultrasonic signal; And detecting the moving speed and direction of tissue included in the object based on the obtained vector Doppler data.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD [0001] The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for acquiring a moving speed and direction of a tissue,

Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for acquiring a direction and a velocity of a tissue contained in a target object using a vector Doppler effect.

The ultrasound diagnostic apparatus transmits an ultrasound signal from a body surface of a target body toward a predetermined site in the body and obtains an image of a tomographic layer or blood flow of the soft tissue using information of the ultrasound signal reflected from the tissue in the body.

Such an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus is advantageous in that it is compact, inexpensive, and can be displayed in real time. In addition, the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus is advantageous in that it is free from exposure to radioactivity and has high stability. Therefore, the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus can be applied to other image diagnostic apparatuses such as an X-ray diagnostic apparatus, a CT (computerized tomography) scanner, an MRI (Magnetic Resonance Image) Are widely used.

In the case of a general ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus, the velocity of the blood flow can be detected using the Doppler effect. However, due to the constraints of Angle Dependency, accurate blood flow velocity can not be measured.

1 is a diagram for explaining angle dependency in a general ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus.

As shown in FIG. 1, the transducer transmits an ultrasonic signal to a target object (direction 1) and receives an ultrasonic response signal reflected from the object (direction 2). At this time, when the flow direction of the blood flow is the ③ direction, the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus can not detect that the blood flow is moving in the ③ direction due to the constraint of angle dependency. Only the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus can detect that the blood flow is getting closer and closer to the transducer. That is, the transducer recognizes only the ④ direction, which is an orthogonal component in the moving direction of the blood flow, and detects that the blood flow is moving away from the transducer.

On the other hand, in the general ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus, because of the angular dependency, it is impossible to detect the movement of the myocardial muscle moving left and right based on the transducer, so that the movement of the heart valve moving up and down is detected instead.

Therefore, there is a need for an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus that intuitively expresses the direction and speed of movement of the myocardium without constraint of the angle dependency.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a method of acquiring movement speed and direction of tissue, the method comprising: acquiring vector Doppler data from a target object by transmitting and receiving ultrasonic signals; And detecting the moving speed and direction of tissue included in the object based on the obtained vector Doppler data.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a method of acquiring movement speed and direction of tissue, the method comprising: generating frequency spectrum information for acquired vector Doppler data; Extracting a clutter signal generated by the organization based on the generated frequency spectrum information; And detecting the movement speed and direction of the tissue using the extracted clutter signal.

The method of acquiring the moving speed and direction of tissue according to an embodiment of the present invention may further include displaying the detected moving speed and direction of the tissue.

The method of acquiring the moving speed and direction of tissue according to an embodiment of the present invention may further include calculating the moving speed and the direction of the tissue using the frequency of at least two clutter signals included in the vector Doppler data have.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a method of acquiring movement speed and direction of a tissue, comprising: setting a cutoff frequency based on generated frequency spectrum information; And extracting the clutter signal from the vector Doppler data using a low-pass filter having a set cut-off frequency.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a method of acquiring a moving velocity and a direction of a tissue, comprising: calculating a gain value such that a maximum power of a blood flow signal becomes a predetermined value based on frequency spectrum information; And applying the calculated gain value to the vector Doppler data to extract the clutter signal.

The gain value calculated according to one embodiment of the present invention may be greater than 0 and less than 1.

The method of acquiring tissue velocity and direction according to an embodiment of the present invention may further include compensating for the extracted clutter signal using the inverse of the calculated gain value.

The method of acquiring the moving speed and direction of tissue according to an embodiment of the present invention may include displaying the moving speed and direction of the tissue in a 2D image or a 3D image.

The method of acquiring the moving speed and direction of tissue according to an embodiment of the present invention may include displaying the moving speed and direction of the tissue in the form of at least one of color, particle, and arrow.

Transmission and reception of ultrasound signals according to an embodiment of the present invention can be performed by using various methods such as plane wave transmission and reception, focused transmission and reception, scan line transmission and reception, broad beam transmission and reception, And transmission / reception.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, there is provided an apparatus for acquiring tissue velocity and direction, comprising: a data acquiring unit for acquiring vector Doppler data from a target object by transmitting and receiving ultrasound signals; A detector for detecting a moving speed and a direction of a tissue included in the object based on the obtained vector Doppler data; And a control unit for controlling the data acquisition unit and the detection unit.

1 is a diagram for explaining angle dependency in a general ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus.
FIG. 2 is a block diagram for explaining a moving speed and direction obtaining apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 3 is a flow chart for explaining a method of acquiring a moving speed and direction of a tissue according to an embodiment of the present invention.
4 is a flow chart for explaining a method of acquiring a moving speed and direction of a tissue according to another embodiment of the present invention.
5 is a diagram for explaining a method of extracting clutter signals generated by tissue using a low-pass filter according to an embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating a method of extracting clutter signals generated by an organization using a gain value associated with an embodiment of the present invention. Referring to FIG.
Figure 7 is a diagram illustrating a method of obtaining a vector component of tissue associated with an embodiment of the present invention.
8 is a diagram illustrating a method of obtaining a vector component of tissue associated with an embodiment of the present invention.
9 is a diagram for explaining a method of acquiring the velocity and direction of movement of the myocardium according to an embodiment of the present invention.

While the present invention has been described in connection with what is presently considered to be the most practical and preferred embodiment, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the disclosed embodiments. Also, in certain cases, there may be a term selected arbitrarily by the applicant, in which case the meaning thereof will be described in detail in the description of the corresponding invention. Therefore, the term used in the present invention should be defined based on the meaning of the term, not on the name of a simple term, but on the entire contents of the present invention.

When an element is referred to as "including" an element throughout the specification, it is to be understood that the element may include other elements as well, without departing from the spirit or scope of the present invention. Also, the terms "part," " module, "and the like described in the specification mean units for processing at least one function or operation, which may be implemented in hardware or software or a combination of hardware and software .

Throughout the specification, "object" can mean a portion of the body. For example, a subject may include an organs such as liver, heart, uterus, brain, breast, abdomen, or fetus.

Throughout the specification, the term "user" may be, but is not limited to, a medical professional such as a doctor, nurse, clinician,

The difference between the frequency of the ultrasonic signal transmitted to the object and the frequency of the echo signal in the entire specification is referred to as "Doppler frequency ". A signal having a Doppler frequency is called a "Doppler signal ".

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings so that those skilled in the art can easily carry out the present invention. The present invention may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein. In order to clearly illustrate the present invention, parts not related to the description are omitted, and similar parts are denoted by like reference characters throughout the specification.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram for explaining a moving speed and direction obtaining apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

An apparatus 100 for acquiring a moving speed and direction of tissue according to an embodiment of the present invention (hereinafter, referred to as an acquiring device) acquires an ultrasound image or a vector Doppler image from a target object using ultrasound, Means a device capable of displaying a vector Doppler image to a user.

The acquisition apparatus 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention can be implemented in various forms. For example, the acquisition device 100 described herein may be implemented in the form of a mobile terminal as well as a stationary terminal. Examples of mobile terminals include laptop computers, PDAs, tablet PCs, and the like.

The acquisition apparatus 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention may include a data acquisition unit 110, a frequency conversion unit 120, a detection unit 130, a display unit 140, and a control unit 150. However, not all illustrated components are required. The acquiring device 100 may be implemented by more components than the components shown, and the acquiring device 100 may be implemented by fewer components.

The data acquisition unit 110 may transmit an ultrasonic signal to a target object. Also, the data acquisition unit 100 may receive the ultrasonic response signal from the object. That is, the data acquisition unit 110 according to an embodiment of the present invention may include a transmission / reception unit for transmitting / receiving ultrasonic signals. A transducer may be an example of the data acquisition unit 110 according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Transmission and reception of ultrasound signals according to an embodiment of the present invention can be performed by using a variety of technologies such as plane wave transmission and reception, focused transmission and reception, scan line transmission and reception, broad beam transmission and reception, This can be. However, transmission and reception of ultrasonic signals according to an embodiment of the present invention are not limited thereto.

The data acquiring unit 110 may acquire vector Doppler data from a target object by transmitting and receiving ultrasound signals. A subject according to an embodiment of the present invention may include blood flow and tissue.

The vector Doppler data according to an embodiment of the present invention refers to Doppler data including up to the moving direction component of the object. That is, the vector Doppler data according to an embodiment of the present invention may include data on Doppler signals received at at least two Doppler angles.

The vector Doppler data according to an embodiment of the present invention may include a blood signal generated by the blood flow and a cluter signal generated by the tissue. In this case, according to an embodiment of the present invention, a plurality of blood flow signals and clutter signals may exist in the vector Doppler data.

The frequency converter 120 may generate frequency spectrum information for the received vector Doppler data. According to an embodiment of the present invention, the frequency transforming unit 120 can generate frequency spectrum information for vector Doppler data using Fourier transform.

The frequency spectrum information according to an embodiment of the present invention may include a power value (intensity of a signal) according to a frequency of a blood flow signal and a clutter signal.

Since the velocity of the blood flow is relatively fast relative to the velocity of the tissue, the blood flow signal generated by the blood flow is located in the high frequency band, and the clutter signal generated by the tissue is located in the low frequency band.

In addition, since the reflectivity of the blood flow is generally very small compared to the reflectance of the surrounding tissue, the intensity of the clutter signal generated by the tissue is larger than the blood flow signal generated by the blood flow.

The detection unit 130 can detect the movement speed and direction of the tissue based on the vector Doppler data. The movement speed of the tissue according to an embodiment of the present invention means the size of the speed generated by the movement of the tissue. The direction of tissue movement according to one embodiment of the present invention means the direction of the speed generated by tissue movement.

The detection unit 130 may extract the clutter signal generated by the tissue based on the generated frequency spectrum information and detect the moving speed and direction of the tissue using the extracted clutter signal. For example, the detector 130 can distinguish the blood flow signal from the clutter signal using the frequency spectrum information of the vector Doppler data.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the detection unit 130 can distinguish the blood flow signal and the clutter signal using a low-pass filter. And the low-pass filter has a cutoff frequency set based on the frequency spectrum information.

Since the blood flow signal generated by the blood flow is located in the high frequency band and the clutter signal generated by the tissue is located in the low frequency band, the detection unit 130 extracts the clutter signal generated by the tissue using a low- It will be done.

According to another embodiment of the present invention, the detector 130 may separate the blood flow signal and the clutter signal by adjusting the gain value of the vector Doppler data. For example, the detection unit 130 may calculate a gain value such that the maximum power of the blood flow signal generated by the blood flow is a predetermined value. According to an embodiment of the present invention, the predetermined value may be '0'.

Since the power of the clutter signal generated by the tissue is larger than the blood flow signal generated by the blood flow in general, the detection unit 130 uses the calculated gain value to set the power of the blood flow signal generated by the blood flow as' 0 'And then extract clutter signals generated by the organization.

The detecting unit 130 may obtain the moving speed and the direction of the tissue using the clutter signal generated by the detected tissue. As described above, the vector Doppler data may include a plurality of clutter signals received in different directions.

Therefore, the detection unit 130 can calculate the moving speed and direction of the tissue based on the frequencies of at least two clutter signals. A detailed method of calculating the moving speed and direction of the tissue will be described later with reference to FIG.

The display unit 140 can display and output information processed by the acquisition apparatus 100. [ For example, the display unit 140 may display the moving speed and direction of tissue. In this case, the display unit 140 may overlay the ultrasound image of the target object with the movement speed and direction of the tissue.

The ultrasound image according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention may include a brightness mode, a color mode, an M mode, a PW (pulsed-wave) mode, a CW (continuous wave) -dimensional mode, and a three-dimensional (3D) mode.

Meanwhile, the display unit 140 may display the moving speed and the direction of the tissue in a 2D image or a 3D image. The display unit 140 may display the moving speed and direction of the tissue in the form of at least one of color, particle, and arrow.

When the display unit 140 and the touch pad have a mutual layer structure to constitute a touch screen, the display unit 140 may be used as an input device in addition to the output device. The display unit 140 may be a liquid crystal display, a thin film transistor-liquid crystal display, an organic light-emitting diode, a flexible display, a three-dimensional display 3D display).

In addition, there may be two or more display units 140 according to the embodiment of the acquiring device 100. [ The touch screen can be configured to detect the touch input position as well as the touch input area as well as the touch input pressure. In addition, the touch screen can be configured to detect not only the real-touch but also the proximity touch.

The control unit 150 may control the data acquisition unit 110, the frequency conversion unit 120, the detection unit 130, and the display unit 140 as a whole.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the control unit 150 can set a cutoff frequency for separating the frequency of the blood flow signal and the frequency of the clutter signal based on the frequency spectrum information generated by the frequency conversion unit 120 .

The control unit 150 may calculate a gain value that causes the maximum power of the blood flow signal to be a predetermined value based on the frequency spectrum information generated by the frequency conversion unit 120. [

Meanwhile, the control unit 150 may compensate the extracted clutter signal by applying the calculated gain value. At this time, the controller 150 compensates the extracted clutter signal using the inverse of the calculated gain value.

The acquisition apparatus 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention can transmit and receive an unfocused beam. In general, when the focused beam is used, since the acquiring apparatus 100 has to transmit a beam for each scan line, the calculation amount becomes large. However, the acquiring apparatus 100 according to the embodiment of the present invention can reduce the calculation amount by using the unforced beam, and realizes the detection of the moving speed and the direction of the tissue in real time.

Hereinafter, a method of detecting the movement speed and direction of the tissue using each configuration of the acquisition apparatus 100 will be described in detail with reference to FIG.

FIG. 3 is a flow chart for explaining a method of acquiring a moving speed and direction of a tissue according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 3, the method of acquiring the moving speed and direction of tissue according to an embodiment of the present invention is comprised of the steps of time-series processing in the moving speed and direction obtaining apparatus 100 of FIG. 2 . Therefore, it is understood that the contents described above with respect to the acquiring apparatus 100 shown in FIG. 2 apply to the method of acquiring the moving speed and direction of the tissue of FIG. 3, even if omitted from the following description.

Acquiring apparatus 100 may transmit and receive ultrasound signals to acquire vector Doppler data from a target object (S310). A subject according to an embodiment of the present invention may include blood flow and tissue. Therefore, the vector Doppler data according to an embodiment of the present invention may include a blood flow signal generated by the blood flow and a clutter signal generated by the tissue.

Acquiring apparatus 100 may detect the moving speed and direction of the tissue based on the obtained vector Doppler data [S320]. The movement speed and direction of the tissue according to an embodiment of the present invention is information on the motion of the object. For example, if the subject is a heart, the rate and direction of tissue movement may be the magnitude of the rate at which the heart relaxes / contracts and the direction in which it relaxes / contracts.

This will be described in more detail with reference to FIG.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart for explaining a method of acquiring a moving speed and direction of a tissue according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 4, the method of acquiring the moving speed and direction of tissue according to an embodiment of the present invention is comprised of the steps of time-series processing in the moving speed and direction obtaining apparatus 100 of FIG. 2 . Therefore, it will be understood that the above description with respect to the acquiring apparatus 100 shown in FIG. 2 applies to the method of acquiring the moving speed and direction of the tissue of FIG. 4, even if omitted from the following description.

As shown in FIG. 4, the acquisition apparatus 100 may transmit ultrasound signals to a target object including blood flow and tissue (S410). In this case, the acquisition apparatus 100 acquires the vector Doppler data generated by the object (S420). The vector Doppler data according to an embodiment of the present invention may include a blood flow signal generated by the blood flow and a clutter signal generated by the tissue.

According to the embodiment of the present invention, the acquisition apparatus 100 can transmit a plurality of ultrasound signals having different transmission angles to a target object, and receive a plurality of echo signals having different receive angles from the target object. According to another embodiment of the present invention, the acquisition apparatus 100 may transmit a single ultrasonic signal to a target object, and may receive a plurality of echo signals having different reception angles from the target object.

That is, the acquiring device 100 can acquire vector Doppler data including a plurality of blood flow signals having different reception angles and a plurality of clutter signals having different reception angles by transmitting and receiving ultrasonic signals.

Acquisition apparatus 100 may generate frequency spectral information for vector Doppler data (S430). The frequency spectrum information according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention can indicate a correlation between the frequency of the 'blood flow signal and the clutter signal' and the intensity of the signal.

The frequency spectrum information according to an embodiment of the present invention can be expressed as shown in FIG. 5, the frequency components of the clutter signal 510 and the blood flow signal 520 appear in the X-axis direction and the power of the clutter signal 510 and the blood flow signal 520 in the Y- Value (intensity of the signal) component may appear.

The acquisition apparatus 100 may extract the clutter signal generated by the tissue by distinguishing the blood flow signal and the clutter signal based on the frequency spectrum information (S440).

According to the first embodiment of the present invention, the acquisition apparatus 100 can extract a clutter signal using a low-pass filter. This will be described with reference to FIG.

5 is a diagram for explaining a method of extracting clutter signals generated by tissue using a low-pass filter according to an embodiment of the present invention.

5, the blood flow signal 520 generated by the blood flow is located in the high frequency band, and the clutter signal 510 generated by the tissue, as shown in FIG. 5, is relatively fast relative to the tissue velocity. Can be located in the low frequency band. In this case, the acquiring device 100 can set a cutoff frequency for detecting the clutter signal based on the frequency spectrum information. That is, the acquisition apparatus 100 sets an appropriate cutoff frequency for removing the blood flow signal 520 generated by the blood flow existing in the high frequency band. For example, in FIG. 5, the cut-off frequency may be x.

In this case, the acquisition apparatus 100 can detect the clutter signal by applying a low-pass filter having the set cutoff frequency to the vector Doppler data.

According to the second embodiment of the present invention, the acquisition apparatus 100 may detect the clutter signal by adjusting the gain value of the vector Doppler data. Will be described with reference to FIG.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating a method of extracting clutter signals generated by an organization using a gain value associated with an embodiment of the present invention. Referring to FIG.

Generally, since the reflectivity of the blood flow is very small compared to the reflectance of the surrounding tissues (blood vessel wall, muscle, etc.), the intensity of the clutter signal generated by the tissue is larger than the blood flow signal generated by the blood flow to be.

6, according to the frequency spectrum information, the power of the clitoral signal 610 generated by the tissue is much larger than the power of the blood flow signal 620 generated by the blood flow.

Therefore, the acquisition apparatus 100 can calculate a gain value such that the maximum power of the blood flow signal 620 becomes a predetermined value. According to an embodiment of the present invention, the predetermined value may be a value close to '0'. Also, the gain value may be a value greater than zero and less than one.

That is, the acquiring device 100 applies a gain value that can make the maximum power of the blood flow signal 620 close to '0' to the vector Doppler data to extract the clutter signal 610.

For example, when the maximum power value of the blood flow signal 620 is 'a' and the maximum power value of the clutter signal 610 is 'b', the acquisition device 100 acquires the maximum power of the blood flow signal 620 0.0001 " that can make the value 'a' approximate to '0' can be calculated. When the gain value '0.0001' is applied to the vector Doppler data, the maximum power value of the blood flow signal 620 is a × 0.0001 (? 0) close to '0', and the maximum power value of the clutter signal 610 is And becomes b x 0.0001 (" 0 ") which is much larger than zero. Thus, the acquiring device 100 is able to extract the clutter signal 610 generated by the blood flow.

On the other hand, the acquisition apparatus 100 can compensate the gain for the clutter signal detected by adjusting the gain value. That is, the acquiring device 100 compensates the power value of the clutter signal by using the reciprocal of the calculated gain value.

For example, when the calculated gain value is '0.0001', the maximum power value of the detected clutter signal is b × 0.0001. Therefore, '10000 (1 / 0.0001)', which is an inverse number of the calculated gain value, Signal so that the maximum power value of the clutter signal is 'b'.

Returning to FIG. 3, the acquiring device 100 can acquire the moving speed and direction of the tissue using the detected clutter signal (S450). The vector Doppler data according to an embodiment of the present invention may include a plurality of clutter signals having different reception angles.

Thus, the acquiring device 100 calculates the moving speed and direction of the tissue based on the frequency of the plurality of clutter signals. Will be described with reference to Figs. 7 and 8. Fig.

Figure 7 is a diagram illustrating a method of obtaining a vector component of tissue associated with an embodiment of the present invention.

의 속도 벡터로 A 방향으로 이동한다. A 방향으로 이동하는 조직(P)에 의해 초음파 신호들(S₁, S₂)의 주파수는 변화된다. 따라서, 데이터 획득부(110)는 주파수가 변화된 에코 신호를 수신하게 된다.The data acquisition unit 110 transmits the first ultrasonic signal S ₁ and the second ultrasonic signal S ₂ to one tissue P of the object. The tissue (P)

In the A direction. The frequencies of the ultrasonic signals S ₁ and S ₂ are changed by the tissue P moving in the A direction. Therefore, the data acquisition unit 110 receives the echo signal whose frequency is changed.

8 is a diagram illustrating a method of obtaining a vector component of tissue associated with an embodiment of the present invention.

를 수직 방향으로 투영하면, 속도 벡터

과 속도 벡터

를 얻을 수 있다. 초음파 신호(S₁)는 조직(P)에 의해 반사되어 데이터 획득부(110)로 송신되는 데, 이때 발생하는 클러터 신호는 속도 벡터

에 대응이 된다. 또한, 초음파 신호(S₂)는 조직(P)에 의해 반사되어 데이터 획득부(110)로 송신되는 데, 이때 발생하는 클러터 신호는 속도 벡터

에 대응이 된다.The velocity vector of the tissue (P)

Is projected in the vertical direction, the velocity vector

And velocity vector

Can be obtained. The ultrasound signal S ₁ is reflected by the tissue P and transmitted to the data acquisition unit 110,

. The ultrasonic signal S ₂ is reflected by the tissue P and transmitted to the data obtaining unit 110. The clutter signal generated at this time is a velocity vector

.

의 각도 차이를 θ₁, y축과 속도 벡터

의 각도 차이를 θ₂라 하면, 속도 벡터

과

에 대해 다음의 식이 도출된다.
y axis and velocity vector

Theta] ₁ , the y-axis and the velocity vector

Theta] ₂ , the velocity vector

and

The following equation is derived.

에 대하여, y = tanθ₁·x (식 1)

Y = tan [theta] ₁ x (Equation 1)

에 대하여, y = tanθ₂·x (식 2)

Y = tan? ₂ x (Equation 2)

과

의 속도를 각각 v₁ 및 v₂라 하면, 속도 벡터

과

에 각각 수직인 1차원 직선 w₁과 w₂가 다음과 같이 도출된다.
Velocity vector

and

Are v ₁ and v ₂ , respectively, the velocity vector

and

Dimensional straight lines w ₁ and w ₂ , which are perpendicular to each other, are derived as follows.

with respect to _{w 1, y = - (1} / tanθ 1) x + v 1 / cosθ 1 ( Formula 3)

with respect to _{w 2, y = - (1} / tanθ 2) x + v 2 / cosθ 2 ( Equation 4)

The velocities v ₁ and v ₂ have the following relationship with the Doppler frequency for the ultrasonic signals S ₁ and S ₂ transmitted from the data acquisition unit 110.

v _n = (? f _n / f) · c (Equation 5)

In Equation 5, Δf _n is the Doppler frequency, f is the frequency of the ultrasonic signals S ₁ and S ₂ , c is the sound velocity of the ultrasonic frequencies S ₁ and S ₂ , and n is an integer.

Since the ultrasonic frequencies (S ₁ , S ₂ ) transmitted to the tissue are transmitted in the same direction as the angles, although the directions are opposite, θ ₁ and θ ₂ have the following relationship.

θ ₁ = π - θ ₂ (Equation 6)

cos? ₁ = -cos? ₂ (Equation 7)

tan? ₁ = tan? ₂ (8)

Using the equations (6), (7) and (8), calculating the intersection of Equations (3) and (4) yields the following expression.

(식 9)

(Equation 9)

(식 10)

(Equation 10)

X and y in Equation 9 and Equation 10 are the coordinates of A, respectively.

의 속도 v 및 y축과의 각도 Φ를 계산하면 다음과 같이 도출된다.
Using Equation 9 and Equation 10,

The velocity v and the angle? With the y-axis are calculated as follows.

의 속도 및 각도 Φ에 의해 조직(P)의 이동 속도 및 방향을 획득할 수 있게 된다.The acquiring device (100) acquires the calculated velocity vector

The speed and direction of the tissue P can be obtained by the speed and angle?

Returning to FIG. 3, the acquisition apparatus 100 may display the moving speed and direction of the tissue on the ultrasound image of the target object (S460). According to an embodiment of the present invention, the acquiring device 100 may display the moving speed and direction of the tissue in a 2D image or a 3D image. Acquiring apparatus 100 may display the moving speed and direction of the tissue in the form of at least one of color, particle, and arrow.

Thus, according to one embodiment of the present invention, the acquisition apparatus 100 can accurately detect the size of the movement direction and the movement speed of the tissue without the influence of the angle dependency, and can provide the user with the moving speed and direction of the tissue .

9 is a diagram for explaining a method of acquiring the velocity and direction of movement of the myocardium according to an embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 9, even if the user sets a sample volume including tissue (e.g., myocardium) and blood flow, the acquisition device 100 adjusts the low-pass filter or gain value so that the tissue (e.g., myocardium) Only the generated clutter signal can be distinguished.

The acquiring device 100 can then calculate the velocity and direction of tissue movement using the frequency of a plurality of clutter signals generated by the tissue.

Accordingly, the acquiring device 100 can display the moving speed and direction of the tissue on the ultrasound image to the user. That is, according to the embodiment of the present invention, the acquisition apparatus 100 intuitively expresses the magnitude of the movement direction and the movement velocity of the myocardial muscle without the limitation of Angle Dependency.

The method according to an embodiment of the present invention can be implemented in the form of a program command which can be executed through various computer means and recorded in a computer-readable medium. The computer-readable medium may include program instructions, data files, data structures, and the like, alone or in combination. The program instructions recorded on the medium may be those specially designed and configured for the present invention or may be available to those skilled in the art of computer software. Examples of computer-readable media include magnetic media such as hard disks, floppy disks and magnetic tape; optical media such as CD-ROMs and DVDs; magnetic media such as floppy disks; Magneto-optical media, and hardware devices specifically configured to store and execute program instructions such as ROM, RAM, flash memory, and the like. Examples of program instructions include machine language code such as those produced by a compiler, as well as high-level language code that can be executed by a computer using an interpreter or the like.

While the present invention has been particularly shown and described with reference to exemplary embodiments thereof, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the disclosed exemplary embodiments, It belongs to the scope of right.

100: Device for acquiring moving speed and direction of tissue
110: Data acquisition unit
120: Frequency converter
130:
140:
150:

Claims (18)

Transmitting a single unfocused ultrasound signal to a target object and receiving a plurality of echo signals having different reception angles from the target object in response to transmission of the unfocused ultrasound signal;
Acquiring vector doppler data of the object based on a plurality of echo signals having different reception angles;
Detecting in real time the moving speed and direction of the tissue included in the object based on the obtained vector Doppler data; And
And displaying the detected moving speed and direction of the tissue on the ultrasound image of the target body. The method of claim 1, wherein detecting the movement speed and direction of the tissue comprises:
Generating frequency spectrum information for the obtained vector Doppler data;
Extracting a signal generated by the tissue based on the generated frequency spectrum information; And
And detecting the movement speed and direction of the tissue using the extracted signal. 3. The method of claim 2, wherein detecting the movement velocity and direction of the tissue comprises:
Extracting at least two signals generated by the tissue; And
And calculating a moving speed and a direction of the tissue using the frequencies of the at least two signals. 3. The method of claim 2, wherein extracting the signal comprises:
Setting a cutoff frequency for separating a frequency of a blood flow signal and a frequency of a signal generated by the tissue based on the generated frequency spectrum information; And
And extracting a signal generated by the tissue from the vector Doppler data using a low-pass filter having the set cut-off frequency. 3. The method of claim 2, wherein extracting the signal comprises:
Calculating a gain value such that a maximum power of the blood flow signal becomes a predetermined value based on the frequency spectrum information; And
And applying the calculated gain value to the vector Doppler data to extract a signal generated by the tissue. 6. The method of claim 5,
Wherein the calculated gain value is greater than zero and less than one. 6. The method of claim 5,
And compensating for the extracted signal using the inverse of the calculated gain value. 2. The method of claim 1,
And displaying the speed and direction of movement of the tissue in the form of at least one of color, particles, and arrows. The ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to claim 1,
Wherein at least one of a planar wave transmission and reception, a scan line transmission and reception, a broad beam transmission and reception, and a zone based transmission and reception is included. The method comprising: transmitting a single unfocused ultrasonic signal to a target object; receiving a plurality of echo signals having different reception angles from the object in response to the transmission of the unfocused ultrasonic signal; Acquiring vector Doppler data of the object based on a plurality of echo signals;
A detector for detecting in real time the movement speed and direction of the tissue contained in the object based on the obtained vector Doppler data;
A display unit for displaying a moving speed and a direction of the detected tissue on an ultrasound image of the target body; And
And a control unit for controlling the data acquisition unit and the detection unit. 11. The apparatus according to claim 10,
And a frequency transformer for generating frequency spectrum information on the obtained vector Doppler data,
Wherein:
Extracts a signal generated by the tissue based on the generated frequency spectrum information, and detects a moving speed and a direction of the tissue using the extracted signal. The apparatus as claimed in claim 11,
Extracting at least two signals generated by the tissue, and calculating a moving speed and a direction of the tissue using the frequencies of the at least two signals. 12. The apparatus according to claim 11,
Setting a cutoff frequency for separating a frequency of a blood flow signal and a frequency of a signal generated by the tissue based on the generated frequency spectrum information,
Wherein:
And a signal generated by the tissue in the vector Doppler data is extracted using a low-pass filter having the set cut-off frequency. 12. The apparatus according to claim 11,
Calculating a gain value for causing the maximum power of the blood flow signal to be a predetermined value based on the frequency spectrum information,
Wherein:
And applying the calculated gain value to the vector Doppler data to extract a signal generated by the tissue. 15. The method of claim 14,
Wherein the calculated gain value is greater than zero and less than one. 15. The apparatus of claim 14,
And the extracted signal is compensated using the reciprocal of the calculated gain value. The display device according to claim 10,
Wherein the moving speed and direction of the tissue are displayed in the form of at least one of color, particles, and arrows. A computer-readable recording medium having recorded thereon a program for implementing a method for obtaining a moving speed and direction of tissue according to any one of claims 1 to 9.

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