JP2000126187A - Ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To display with a simple operation, instantaneously and accurately an ultrasonic image data at a moment when an operator would like to freeze it. SOLUTION: A cinememory 5 for recording ultrasonic data of a plurality of continuous frames and a storing device 8 for storing a time shift (a time difference) between an instance for wishing to freeze it and an instance when the freezing operation is actually performed are proided. When an operator performs a freezing operation, the time difference is converted into an optimum no. of frames based on the time difference and the present frame rate in a frame converting part 9 and then, the output frame no. traced back to the past by the above described frame no. as the newest frame no. reference is calculated by a cinememory reading-out and controlling part 10 and an ultrasonic data of the frame corresponding to the output frame no. recorded in the cinememory 5 is read out and this ultrasonic data is converted into an image data and it is displayed.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus capable of accurately displaying an image at the moment when an operator wants to freeze.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus, even if an operator performs a freeze operation in order to freeze an image, the time at which the operator wishes to freeze and the time at which the freeze operation is actually performed are time-dependent. Due to the shift, an image expected by the operator may not be obtained.

In order to display an image at the moment when an operator intends to freeze, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 47-55050 or Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 3-55050 employs the following method.

[0004] That is, in the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus disclosed in the prior art, a cine memory mechanism for storing ultrasonic data for a plurality of continuous frames (until before or before the freeze), and an ultrasonic memory in the cine memory. Means for displaying the sound wave data as image data, means for stopping the writing of the ultrasonic data to the cine memory after a plurality of sampling periods from the time when the operator performs the freeze operation, or the time when the freeze operation is performed; In this case, there are provided a means for displaying the ultrasonic data before or before or after the multi-screen, and a means for selecting an arbitrary image from the ultrasonic image data displayed on the multi-screen and displaying the still image. .

[0005] In this prior art, when an operator wishes to view an image he wants to freeze, once the freeze operation is performed, the ultrasonic image data in the cine memory is displayed on multiple sides, so that the operator can display the displayed ultrasonic image data. The desired ultrasonic image data is displayed by selecting an image to be frozen from among the images.

[0006]

In the prior art described above, at the moment when the operator wants to freeze while operating the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus, at least the freeze operation → multiple screen display of the ultrasonic image data → the ultrasonic image data to be frozen Select →
It is necessary to execute a four-step procedure of displaying ultrasonic image data to be frozen.

The necessity of at least four steps for displaying only the image at the moment when the operator intends to freeze is time and labor consuming, and the freeze operation becomes complicated. In addition, it takes time from when the freeze operation is actually performed to when the ultrasonic image data is displayed as expected, during which time the patient may be burdened.

In addition, a mechanism for displaying ultrasonic image data in the cine memory on a multi-screen is required, and the entire apparatus is correspondingly enlarged.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In view of the above circumstances, the present invention provides an ultrasonic apparatus capable of miniaturizing the entire apparatus and displaying an image at the moment when an operator intends to freeze, instantaneously and accurately by a simple operation. It is an object to provide a diagnostic device.

[0010]

To achieve the above object, an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to the present invention comprises a probe having an ultrasonic transducer for transmitting and receiving an ultrasonic wave, and transmitting an ultrasonic wave from the ultrasonic transducer. A transmitting / receiving circuit for receiving the ultrasonic data received by the ultrasonic transducer, an A / D converter for converting the ultrasonic data into a digital signal, and an ultrasonic wave for recording one frame of ultrasonic data A memory, a cine memory for recording ultrasonic data for a plurality of frames, a means for pre-registering a time difference between the moment when the operator wants to freeze and the time when the freeze operation is actually performed, and considering a frame rate from a time difference, Means for automatically calculating the number of frames corresponding to the number of frames corresponding to the time difference, and ultrasonic data of a frame corresponding to the number of frames obtained from the calculating means from the cine memory. And having means for issuing, and means for displaying by converting the ultrasound data read from the ultrasonic memory or cine the image data.

That is, in the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to the present invention, the time difference (time difference) between the moment when the operator wants to freeze and the time when the freeze operation is actually performed is registered, so that during the freeze operation, An image that the user actually wants to freeze can be displayed instantaneously. In addition, two types of freeze operations can be performed by separately providing a normal freeze operation switch and an operation switch for displaying an image at the moment when the user wants to freeze.

[0012]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 shows an overall block diagram of the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus.

An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to the present embodiment is an ultrasonic transducer 1 provided in a mechanical scanning probe (not shown) for transmitting ultrasonic waves and receiving echo signals from a subject.
A transmission / reception circuit 2 for controlling transmission / reception of the transducer, an A / D converter 3 for converting a signal received by the transducer into a digital signal, and an ultrasound memory 4 for recording ultrasound data for one frame. Cine memory 5 for recording ultrasonic data for a plurality of continuous frames, and a changeover switch 6 for switching between data output from the ultrasonic memory and data output from the cine memory
A control unit 7 for controlling the entire diagnostic apparatus; a storage device 8 for storing a time lag (time difference) between a time to be frozen and an actual freeze; and a time difference read from the storage device 8 at that time. A frame conversion unit 9 for converting the number of frames according to the frame rate, a cine memory read control unit 10 for specifying the frame number of the ultrasonic data read from the cine memory 5, and a coordinate conversion / image for converting the ultrasonic data to image data. It comprises a generation unit 11, an image display device 12 for displaying an ultrasonic image, and the like.

As shown in FIG. 2, the cine memory 5 records ultrasonic data in frame units. Each frame is recorded for each scanning line. Cine memory 5 is FI
In the FO (First-In First-Out) structure, the ultrasonic data stored in the cine memory is overwritten in the place where the oldest frame is recorded.

In the cine memory 5, the frame number in which the ultrasonic data of the latest frame is recorded is sent to the cine memory read control unit 10 as the latest frame number.
The number of frames that can be recorded in the cine memory 5 may be any number.

FIG. 3 shows the relationship between the cine memory read control unit 10 and the cine memory 5. The cine memory 5 sends the frame number in which the ultrasonic data of the latest frame is recorded to the cine memory read control unit 10 as the latest frame number. The cine memory read control unit 10 sends to the cine memory 5 an output frame number that is retroactive by the read frame number (the number of frames) input from the frame conversion unit 9 based on the latest frame number. The ultrasonic data of the output frame number is output.

Next, the operation of the present embodiment having the above configuration will be described. During normal operation, the changeover switch 6 is connected to the contact a, and the ultrasonic memory 4 is connected to the coordinate conversion / image generation unit 11.

First, the ultrasonic transducer 1 receives an echo signal with the transmitted ultrasonic wave. The echo signal enters the transmission / reception circuit 2 and is converted into ultrasonic data by the A / D converter 3. The ultrasonic data is recorded in the ultrasonic memory 4 for each frame for one frame. The ultrasonic data is simultaneously recorded in the cine memory 5 for each scanning line in the cine memory 5 for each frame, starting from the portion having the smaller frame number. At this time, the cine memory 5 records the frame number (latest frame number) in which the data of the latest frame is recorded.

The ultrasonic data for one frame recorded in the ultrasonic memory 4 passes through a changeover switch 6 and is subjected to coordinate conversion /
The image data is output to the image generation unit 11, converted into image data, output to the image display device 12, and displayed on the image display device 12 as an ultrasonic image.

There are two types of freeze operations: a normal freeze operation and a pre-freeze operation in which an image at the moment when the operator wants to freeze is displayed in a freeze (hereinafter, referred to as "pre-freeze").

To display a normal freeze image, a normal freeze operation switch (not shown) is turned on.

Then, an image freeze request is sent from the control unit 7 to the transmission / reception circuit 2, and the recording of the ultrasonic data in the ultrasonic memory 4 and the cine memory 5 is stopped. Therefore, the frozen ultrasonic image is displayed on the image display device 12.

When a pre-freeze image is desired to be displayed, the control unit 7 preliminarily notifies the control unit 7 of a time lag (time difference) between the moment when the operator wants to freeze and the time when the freeze operation is actually performed, or a frame. Enter the number difference. The input time difference or frame number difference is recorded in the storage device 8.

Incidentally, it is possible to register a plurality of the time differences, and the operator registers an optimum time difference in advance, and when pre-freezing, any one of the time differences is stored in the storage device 8 via the control unit 7. Select whether to use the time difference.

When a pre-freeze operation switch (not shown) is turned on, the change-over switch 6 is switched to a contact b, and an image freeze request is sent from the control unit 7 to the transmission / reception circuit 2, and the ultrasonic memory 4 and the cine memory 5 The recording of new ultrasonic data at is stopped.

Next, the control unit 7 sends a message to the storage device 8.
A command to read the time difference or the number of frames stored in the storage device 8 is sent, and the read time difference or the number of frames is sent to the frame conversion unit 9.

The frame converter 9 converts the time difference into an optimal number of frames according to the input time difference and the current frame rate sent from the transmission / reception circuit 2.
At this time, if the difference in the number of frames is output from the storage device 8, the time difference is not converted. The number of frames thus obtained is referred to as the number of read frames.

The equation for converting the time difference inputted from the storage device 8 into the number of frames to be read out by the frame converter 9 is as follows. [Number of read frames] = [frame rate] × [input time difference] (1) The number of read frames obtained by the above equation (1) is sent to the cine memory read control unit 10.

The cine memory read control unit 10 calculates the past frame number to be output (output frame number) from the following equation using the latest frame number and the number of read frames sent from the cine memory 5. [Output frame number] = [Latest frame number]-[Number of read frames] (2)

The cine memory read control unit 10 sends the output frame number calculated by the above equation (2) to the cine memory 5, reads out the ultrasonic data of the frame corresponding to the output frame number from the cine memory 5, and performs coordinate conversion through the changeover switch 6. The image data is sent to the image generation unit 11, converted into image data, and displayed on the image display device 12 as an ultrasonic image.

When it is desired to change the time lag (time difference) between the moment when the operator wants to freeze and the time when the freeze operation is actually performed, the contents of the storage device 8 must be rewritten or the storage device 8 must be rewritten. If a desired time difference is stored among a plurality of time differences stored in the storage device 8, any of the time differences among the time differences stored in the storage device 8 is used by the control unit 7 before the pre-freezing. Select and change.

As described above, in the present embodiment, the time difference (time difference) between the moment when the operator wants to freeze and the time when the freeze operation is actually performed is registered in advance, so that the By turning on the freeze operation switch, an expected image can be instantaneously and accurately displayed as expected.

In a normal freeze operation, a freeze image at the moment when the freeze operation is actually performed can be displayed. In this case, since the normal freeze operation switch and the pre-freeze operation switch are separately provided, two types of freeze operations can be performed.

Further, since the time is preliminarily input, it is possible to automatically cope with a case where the frame rate is different. You can change the time difference (time difference) between when you want to freeze and when you actually perform the freeze operation,
Further, since a plurality of the time differences can be stored, they can be appropriately selected at the time of use by setting in advance for each operator.

Also, since it is not necessary to display the images in the cine memory for displaying the image to be frozen on multiple screens,
There is no need for a mechanism to display the other side image.
The size of the entire device can be reduced.

[Appendix] As described above, according to the present embodiment, the following configuration can be obtained.

(1) A probe having an ultrasonic transducer for transmitting and receiving ultrasonic waves, and a transmission / reception circuit for transmitting ultrasonic waves from the ultrasonic transducer and receiving the ultrasonic data received by the ultrasonic transducer. An A / D converter for converting the ultrasonic data into a digital signal, an ultrasonic memory for recording ultrasonic data for one frame, a cine memory for recording ultrasonic data for a plurality of frames, Means for correcting the difference in the number of frames to be actually frozen and the number of frames actually frozen, and means for converting ultrasonic data output from a frame corresponding to the difference in the number of frames in the ultrasonic memory or cine memory into image data and displaying the image data An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus characterized by the above-mentioned.

(2) In the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to the additional item (1), the means for correcting the difference between the number of frames that the operator wants to freeze and the number of frames that actually freezes may be determined at the moment the operator wants to freeze and the actual freeze operation. Characterized in that it has means for inputting and storing a time lag (time difference) at the time of performing, and means for converting the time difference into a frame number difference according to the current frame rate. According to this configuration, by registering the pre-freezing time in advance, the image at the moment when the operator wants to perform the freeze display can be instantaneously displayed. Further, even when the frame rates are different, it is possible to convert the pre-freezing time according to the frame rate.

(3) The ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to item (2), wherein a plurality of pre-fuse times can be registered and changed. According to this configuration, the pre-freezing time can be set for each operator, so that the pre-freeze image can be displayed accurately.

[0040]

As described above, according to the present invention,
An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus capable of using a probe equipped with an ultrasonic transducer for transmitting and receiving ultrasonic waves, comprising means for correcting the difference between the number of frames that the operator wants to freeze and the number of frames that actually freezes, which corresponds to this number of frames Since the ultrasonic data output from the frame to be displayed is displayed as image data, the ultrasonic image data at the moment when the operator wants to freeze display can be displayed instantly and accurately with a simple operation. it can.

Further, there is no need for a mechanism for displaying and selecting the ultrasonic data in the cine memory on a multi-screen in order to display an image to be frozen, and accordingly, the size of the entire apparatus can be reduced.

Further, since one frame of ultrasonic data recorded in the ultrasonic memory and a plurality of frames of ultrasonic data recorded in the cine memory can be selectively displayed, two types of freeze are provided. Operation becomes possible.

[Brief description of the drawings]

1 is an overall block diagram of an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus.

FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram of a cine memory;

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing a relationship between a cine memory read control unit and a cine memory;

[Explanation of symbols]

 REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 1 ultrasonic transducer 2 transmission / reception circuit 3 A / D converter 4 ultrasonic memory 5 cine memory 7 controller 9 frame converter 11 coordinate conversion / image generator 12 image display

Claims (1)

[Claims] A probe provided with an ultrasonic transducer for transmitting and receiving ultrasonic waves; a transmitting / receiving circuit for transmitting ultrasonic waves from the ultrasonic transducer and receiving ultrasonic data received by the ultrasonic transducer. An A / D converter for converting the ultrasonic data to a digital signal; an ultrasonic memory for recording ultrasonic data for one frame; a cine memory for recording ultrasonic data for a plurality of frames; Means for correcting the difference between the number of frames to be actually frozen and the number of frames to be actually frozen, and means for converting ultrasonic data output from a frame corresponding to the difference in the number of frames in the ultrasonic memory or cine memory into image data and displaying the image data. Ultrasound diagnostic device characterized by the following.