JP2000210288A - Ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To automatically adjust the amplitude of an organism signal to reduce load on an operator. SOLUTION: An electrocardiographic signal 100 outputted by an electrocardiograph is inputted into a waveform processing part 20 which automatically adjusts the electrocardiographic signal 100 so that the size of the amplitude of the electrocardiographic signal 100 becomes a prescribed value based on the amplitude of the electrocardiographic signal itself and outputs the reference signal 110 to represent the amplitude before the amplitude adjustment. The wave form of the electrocardiographic signal is displayed together with the ultrasonic image on a display part and the amplitude of the waveform is usually constant. The reference signal is also simultaneously displayed on the display part 16.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

The present invention relates to an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus, and more particularly to an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus having a function of measuring a biological signal.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Some conventional ultrasonic diagnostic apparatuses have a function of measuring a biological signal. In such an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus, for example, a B-mode image (tomographic image) or a two-dimensional blood flow image is displayed, and a waveform of a biological signal is displayed together with the image. The amplitude of the biological signal differs depending on the subject. For example, when the amplitude is too large, the waveform display of the biological signal becomes large, which hinders observation of an ultrasonic image. On the other hand, if the waveform display of the biological signal is too small, it is difficult to grasp the time phase in diagnosis. Therefore, conventionally, the amplitude (gain) of the biological signal has been manually adjusted.

[0003]

However, it is complicated to adjust the gain of the biological signal for each subject, especially in a group examination, and the diagnostic efficiency is reduced.

The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned conventional problems, and an object of the present invention is to enable an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus to automatically adjust the amplitude of a biological signal, thereby reducing an operator's labor. It is in.

Another object of the present invention is to make it possible to recognize the amplitude or the degree of adjustment before the adjustment even after the automatic adjustment of the amplitude of the biological signal.

[0006]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus capable of displaying a biological signal together with an ultrasonic image, a biological signal measuring section for measuring the biological signal, An amplitude adjustment unit that automatically adjusts the amplitude of the biological signal.

According to the above configuration, the amplitude of the measured biological signal is automatically adjusted in displaying the waveform, and preferably, the amplitude (vibration width) of the biological signal of each person is automatically adjusted to a predetermined value. Therefore, it is possible to solve the problem of obstructing the observation in the ultrasonic image and the problem of obstructing the observation of the biological signal itself, and also to prevent the complexity associated with the gain adjustment.

Preferably, there is provided means for displaying pre-adjustment amplitude information representing the amplitude of the biological signal before the automatic adjustment. According to this configuration, even if the amplitude is automatically adjusted, the information before the automatic adjustment or the information corresponding to the magnitude of the gain is displayed, so that the amplitude of the biological signal itself can be provided as diagnostic information.

Preferably, the amplitude adjusting section includes means for detecting a peak level in the biological signal from the biological signal measuring section, and means for automatically adjusting the amplitude using the peak level. The peak is, for example, an R-wave peak, and the amplitude can be automatically adjusted based on the characteristic portion of the biological signal of each person. Here, preferably, the biological signal is an electrocardiographic signal.

[0010]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows a preferred embodiment of an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to the present invention, and FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the entire configuration.

The probe 10 is an ultrasonic probe for transmitting and receiving ultrasonic waves. The transmission / reception circuit 12 supplies a transmission signal to an array transducer included in the probe 10 and
This is a circuit that performs a predetermined process on a reception signal output from the probe 10. The image processing unit 14 includes the transmission / reception circuit 12
Is a circuit that forms an ultrasonic image based on a reception signal input through the
Various images such as a mode image, an M-mode image, and a two-dimensional Doppler image can be given. The ultrasonic image thus formed is displayed on the display unit 16.

On the other hand, the electrocardiograph 18 is a device for measuring an electrocardiographic signal 100 in the present embodiment, and the electrocardiographic signal 100 output from the electrocardiograph 18 is sent to a waveform processing section 20. The waveform processing unit 20 is a circuit that performs gain control so that the amplitude of the electrocardiographic signal becomes a predetermined value, which will be described in detail with reference to FIG. The electrocardiographic signal 102 whose amplitude has been adjusted by the waveform processing unit 20 is sent to the image processing unit 14, where the electrocardiographic waveform is synthesized with an ultrasonic image. That is, the display unit 1
In 6, the electrocardiographic waveform is displayed together with the ultrasonic image. Incidentally, in the present embodiment, the waveform processing unit 20 outputs a reference signal 110 representing an amplitude value corresponding to the amplitude value of the electrocardiographic signal, and the reference signal 110 is also displayed on the display unit 16 as a waveform or a numerical value. . In this case, for example, the electrocardiographic signal before the amplitude adjustment may be displayed as a waveform, or the level of the electrocardiographic signal in a predetermined time phase may be displayed as a DC line. Alternatively, a numerical value indicating the amplification degree may be displayed. In any case, information on the amplitude of the electrocardiographic waveform before the amplitude adjustment can be provided as such a reference signal.

Although the electrocardiographic signal waveform is displayed in the configuration example shown in FIG. 1, the present invention can be applied to, for example, the waveform display of a heart sound signal or a pulse wave signal as other biological signals. is there.

FIG. 2 shows a specific example of the configuration of the waveform processing section 20 shown in FIG.

The waveform processing section 20 is a circuit for performing gain control by a feedback system. More specifically, the electrocardiographic signal 100 is input to an amplitude adjuster 30 that electronically adjusts the amplitude, and the amplitude of the electrocardiographic signal 100 is automatically adjusted to a predetermined value based on a gain control signal 104 described later. Is done. That is, when the waveform display of the electrocardiogram signal is performed, the amplitude is adjusted so that the amplitudes of the waveforms of the individuals match. In this case, the predetermined value is appropriately set according to, for example, the size of the ultrasonic image, the size of the entire screen, or other conditions regarding image display. The electrocardiographic signal 102 after the amplitude adjustment is sent to the image processing unit 14 as described above, and the waveform is finally displayed on the display unit 16. Of course, you may make it output to another recording device.

The R-wave detection circuit 32 is a circuit for detecting an R-wave in the electrocardiographic signal 100, and a specific example of the output signal 108 is shown in FIG. The period T1 of the signal 108 can be variably set.

The pulse output circuit 34 shown in FIG.
This is a circuit for generating the clear pulse 106 on the basis of the signal 08 (see FIG. 2). The clear pulse 106 is output to the discharge controllers 36 and 38.

A band-pass filter 40 provided at a stage subsequent to the amplitude adjusting unit 30 is a circuit for removing DC components and high-frequency components contained in the electrocardiographic signal. The output of the band-pass filter 40 is output to the half-wave rectifier circuit 42 and also to the half-wave rectifier circuit 46 via the inverter circuit 44. Here, the inverter circuit 44 is a circuit for inverting the amplitude.

In the half-wave rectifier circuits 42 and 46, half-wave rectification is performed, and peaks in the signals after the half-wave rectification are held in peak hold circuits 48 and 50 provided at the subsequent stage. Here, the discharge controller 3
When the clear pulse 106 is input to each of the peak hold circuits 48 and 50, the clear control, that is, the discharge control is performed on the peak hold circuits 48 and 50 at the time when the clear pulse 106 rises. That is, the peak hold is executed for each cycle of the electrocardiographic signal.

In the adder 52, the peak-held voltages V1 and V2 are added, and the addition result is added to the difference
4 is output. The differentiator 54 is a circuit that calculates the difference of the addition result with respect to the comparison voltage generated by the voltage generator 56, and a signal corresponding to the difference is input to the sample and hold circuit 58. Here, the voltage generator 56 outputs the amplitude of the electrocardiographic waveform desired by the user as a voltage, and the voltage can be arbitrarily changed by the user to an appropriate value. The sample and hold circuit 58 executes a sample and hold for a signal from the differentiator 54. In this case, the sample and hold circuit 58 is a circuit that resets at the rising timing of the signal 108 shown in FIG. That is, the sample hold circuit 58 is reset in each cycle of the electrocardiographic signal,
The gain of the electrocardiographic signal can be set for each cardiac cycle. The gain control signal 104 output from the sample hold circuit 58 is input to the amplitude adjustment unit 30 as described above, and the amplitude of the electrocardiographic signal 100 is adjusted according to the magnitude of the gain control signal 104. For example, when the gain control signal 104 is positive,
The amplitude of the electrocardiographic signal 100 is suppressed, while the amplitude of the electrocardiographic signal 100 is amplified when the value of the gain control signal 104 is negative.

In this embodiment, the electrocardiographic signal 100 is input to the reference signal output circuit 60, and the reference signal output circuit 60 generates the reference signal 110 based on the electrocardiographic signal 100. The reference signal 110 is sent to the display unit 16 via the image processing unit 14 as described above. The reference signal 110 is a signal indicating the magnitude of the amplitude of the electrocardiographic signal 100 before the amplitude adjustment as described above.

In the above-mentioned conventional apparatus, when the ultrasonic image and the waveform of the electrocardiogram signal are simultaneously displayed, the amplitude of the electrocardiogram waveform may be too large to prevent the observation of the ultrasonic image, Is too small to accurately observe the time phase of the electrocardiographic signal. However, according to the above-described embodiment, the conventional problem can be solved by always maintaining an appropriate amplitude. In particular, in a group examination or the like, it is not necessary to manually set a gain value for each person, so that the complexity in that aspect can be greatly reduced.

[0024]

As described above, according to the present invention,
In the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus, the amplitude of the biological signal can be automatically adjusted.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a preferred embodiment of an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a specific configuration example of a waveform processing unit illustrated in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a waveform chart illustrating each signal in a waveform processing unit illustrated in FIG. 2;

[Explanation of symbols]

10 probe, 12 transmitting and receiving circuit, 14 image processing unit,
16 display unit, 18 electrocardiograph, 20 waveform processing unit, 30
Amplitude adjustment unit.

Continued on front page F-term (reference) 2G047 AA12 AC13 BA03 BC03 BC05 BC13 DA02 DA05 DB02 EA12 EA13 GF34 GG15 GG28 GH07 4C027 AA02 BB05 CC06 EE06 GG02 HH11 4C301 AA02 CC02 CC04 DD02 EE13 EE14 FF30 GB13 KK28

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus capable of displaying a biological signal together with an ultrasonic image, comprising: a biological signal measuring unit for measuring the biological signal; and an amplitude adjusting unit for automatically adjusting the amplitude of the biological signal. An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus characterized by the above-mentioned. 2. An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising means for displaying pre-adjustment amplitude information indicating an amplitude of the biological signal before automatic adjustment. 3. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the amplitude adjusting unit detects a peak level in a biological signal from the biological signal measuring unit, and performs automatic adjustment of the amplitude using the peak level. Means, and an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus comprising: 4. An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said biological signal is an electrocardiographic signal.