JP2001245888A - Ultrasonic diagnostic device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To change drift speed of a measuring marker according to the brightness of the pixel on ultrasonic tomography, in measuring objective parts by an ultrasonic diagnostic device with a means for measuring the parts. SOLUTION: The ultrasonic diagnostic device transmits and receives ultrasonic waves in the body of a subject through a probe 1, forms picture signals by processing the received reflected echo signals and indicates pictorial signals as ultrasonic diagnostic tomography. It has a means for measuring objective parts on the indicated tomography. In measuring the objective parts mentioned above, a means for changing drift speed of a measuring marker (7, 10) according to the brightness of a pixel is set. By setting this means, the drift speed of the measuring marker can be changed according to the brightness of the pixel of the ultrasonic tomography in measuring the objective parts mentioned above.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an ultrasonic diagnosis for displaying an ultrasonic tomographic image of a subject and measuring a target portion by using a reflected echo signal transmitted and received from a probe into the subject. More particularly, the present invention relates to an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus that varies a moving speed of a measurement marker according to the luminance of a pixel of an ultrasonic tomographic image.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A conventional ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus includes a probe for transmitting / receiving an ultrasonic wave to / from a subject, means for processing the received reflected echo signal to form an image signal, and Means for processing the signal and displaying it as an ultrasonic tomographic image, and means for measuring a target part based on the displayed ultrasonic tomographic image, wherein the means for measuring the target part is a display means And a pointing device for operating the measurement marker displayed on the screen. When measuring the target site of the subject using such an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus, the measurement marker on the screen is moved by operating the pointing device, and the measurement is performed in accordance with two points of the ultrasonic tomographic image. The length of the target part was measured from the moving distance.

[0003]

However, when the measurement marker is moved in this manner, the movement speed of the measurement marker is, for example, when a trackball is used as a pointing device, the speed at which the trackball is rotated. Only depended on. That is, if the speed of rotating the trackball is slow, the moving speed of the measurement marker is slow, and if the speed of rotating the trackball is fast, the measuring marker moves fast. Therefore, in order to precisely align the measurement marker with the position of the target site on the tomographic image, the trackball must be slowly rotated to make fine adjustments. Had to spin the trackball quickly. Also, adjust the moving speed of the measurement marker with respect to the speed of rotating the trackball,
If the moving speed is reduced so that the measurement marker can be strictly aligned, it takes time to move a long distance. Conversely, if the moving speed is increased so that the measuring marker can be moved quickly, the delicate position is increased. There was a problem that matching was difficult.

Accordingly, the present invention addresses such a problem and changes the moving speed of the measurement marker in accordance with the luminance of the pixel of the ultrasonic tomographic image displayed on the screen of the display device, thereby obtaining the object. It is an object of the present invention to provide an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus capable of accurately and quickly measuring a target part.

[0005]

In order to achieve the above object, an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to the present invention transmits and receives ultrasonic waves to and from a subject using a probe and processes the received reflected echo signals. Form an image signal, display this image signal as an ultrasonic tomographic image, in an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus having a means for measuring a target site based on the displayed tomographic image, when measuring the target site, Means for changing the moving speed of the measurement marker in accordance with the luminance of the pixel of the tomographic image is provided.

[0006]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to the present invention.
This ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus transmits an ultrasonic wave into a subject, displays an ultrasonic tomographic image of the subject using a reflected echo signal received, and measures a target region. It includes a sound wave transmitting / receiving unit 2, an image processing unit 3, a display device 4, a console 5, and a control unit 6, and further includes a storage device 7.

The probe 1 transmits an ultrasonic wave toward a target portion of the subject, receives a reflected echo signal returned from the transmitted ultrasonic wave reflected by the target portion, and receives the reflected echo signal. Although not shown in the figure, a transducer which serves as a source of an ultrasonic wave and receives a reflected echo signal is provided therein.

The ultrasonic transmission / reception section 2 supplies a transmission signal to the probe 1 and amplifies a reception signal input from the probe 1 to form tomographic image information. Has a transmission circuit for forming a transmission signal, a reception amplifier for amplifying an input reception signal, and a control circuit for controlling them by a transmission / reception control signal input from a control unit 6 described later.

The image processing section 3 processes the tomographic image information formed by the ultrasonic transmission / reception section 2 and marker coordinate information calculated by a marker coordinate calculation section 9 described later to form an image signal and to display an image signal. The luminance signal of the pixel at the coordinates of the measurement marker displayed on the screen 4 is sent to the control unit 6.

The display device 4 inputs an image signal formed by the image processing section 3 and displays it on a screen as an ultrasonic tomographic image and a measurement marker of a target portion, and is composed of, for example, a CRT.

The console 5 is an input device for operating the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus main body, and has a pointing device 8. The pointing device 8 moves a measurement marker displayed on the display device 4 and includes, for example, a trackball, a mouse, and a joystick. Note that this pointing device 8
Generates a movement signal corresponding to the operation amount, and the movement signal is sent to the control unit 6.

The control section 6 sends a transmission / reception control signal to the ultrasonic transmission / reception section 2 in order to control each component of the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus, and the image processing section 3 transmits the luminance of the pixel at the coordinates of the measurement marker. A signal is input, and a movement signal is input from the pointing device 8 and converted into a basic speed signal V0.
And a marker coordinate calculating unit 9 for calculating marker coordinate information from the image processing unit and sending the calculated coordinate information to the image processing unit 3. The console 5 and the control unit 6 constitute a unit for measuring a target part.

Here, in the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to the present invention, the storage device 7 and the integrator 1 serve as means for changing the moving speed of the measurement marker in accordance with the luminance of the pixel of the tomographic image.
0 is provided. This storage device 7 stores data of a conversion table for taking in a luminance signal of a pixel from the control unit 6 and converting it into a moving speed coefficient K.
For example, a conversion table 11 as shown in FIG. 2 is stored. The accumulator 10 integrates the moving speed coefficient K with the basic speed signal V0 obtained by converting the moving signal from the pointing device 8 to obtain a marker moving speed signal V.
m. This marker moving speed signal V
The moving speed of the measurement marker changes according to the value of m.

The operation of displaying an ultrasonic tomographic image of a subject and measuring a target site using the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus having the above-described configuration will be described below. First, referring to FIG. 1, the probe 1 receives a transmission signal from the ultrasonic transmission / reception unit 2 and transmits an ultrasonic wave toward a target part of the subject, and the transmitted ultrasonic wave is transmitted to the target part. It receives the reflected echo signal that has been reflected back, converts the received reflected echo signal into a received signal, and sends it to the ultrasonic transmission / reception unit 2. Here, transmission and reception of the transmission signal and the reception signal in the ultrasonic transmission / reception unit 2 are controlled by a transmission / reception control signal transmitted from the control unit 6. The reception signal is amplified by the ultrasonic transmission / reception unit 2 and transmitted to the image processing unit 3 as tomographic image information of a target part of the subject. The tomographic image information is processed by the image processing unit 3 together with marker coordinate information sent from a marker calculating unit 9 described later, and is converted into an image signal.
The image signal is displayed on the display device 4 as a measurement marker that moves on the tomographic image together with the ultrasonic tomographic image of the target portion of the subject.

Here, the measurement marker displayed on the screen of the display device 4 is moved by operating a pointing device 8 provided on the console 5. At this time, the moving speed of the measurement marker changes according to the luminance of the pixel at the coordinates of the measurement marker displayed on the screen. For example, the measurement marker moves slowly in a high-brightness portion of the ultrasonic tomographic image and conversely moves quickly in a low-brightness portion of the ultrasonic tomographic image.

Next, a description will be given of a state in which the moving speed of the measurement marker changes in accordance with the luminance of the pixel at the coordinates located on the ultrasonic tomographic image. Here, it is assumed that a trackball is used as the pointing device 8 for moving the measurement marker. When the operator rotates the trackball, a signal indicating the number of rotations is sent to the control unit 6. The signal of the number of revolutions of the trackball is converted into a basic speed signal V0 by the control unit 6 and sent to the integrator 10. On the other hand, a luminance signal of a pixel at the coordinates of the measurement marker on the ultrasonic tomographic image is sent from the image processing unit 3 to the control unit 6, and the luminance signal is converted into a conversion table 11 (see FIG. 2)
Is converted into a moving speed coefficient K using the data of
Sent to 0. Then, the marker moving speed signal Vm is obtained by the integrator 10 using the basic speed signal V0 and the moving speed coefficient K. The marker moving speed signal Vm is a signal that finally determines the moving speed of the measurement marker, and is calculated by the following equation (1). Vm = K × V0 (1)

In the above equation (1), since the moving speed coefficient K is determined according to the luminance signal of the pixel, the marker moving speed signal Vm is determined by the luminance of the pixel at the coordinates of the measurement marker on the ultrasonic tomographic image. It can be seen that it changes according to the signal. In the marker coordinate calculating section 9, marker coordinate information is calculated from the marker moving speed signal Vm. The marker coordinate information is processed by the image processing unit 3 and displayed on the display device 4 as a measurement marker.

Next, with reference to FIG. 3, a specific example of the operation of varying the moving speed of the measurement marker 12 according to the luminance of the pixel of the ultrasonic tomographic image will be described. FIG. 3 is an ultrasonic tomographic image of, for example, the head of a fetus displayed on the display device 4 shown in FIG. In general obstetrical measurements, the lateral diameter and front-to-rear diameter of a skull are measured to diagnose the stage of fetal growth. For that purpose, accurate and quick measurement of a target site of a subject is desired. In the ultrasonic tomographic image of the head of the fetus shown in FIG. 3, the portion of the skull 13 indicated by a thick line has a high luminance, and the other portions have a low pixel luminance.

Measurement marker 1 in such a case
The variable movement speed of No. 2 will be described with reference to the formula (1) and FIG. For example, assuming that the measurement marker 12 is located away from the fetal skull 13 and the luminance signal of the pixel at that coordinate is 0, the moving speed coefficient K at that time is 1; Thus, the measurement marker moving speed signal Vm has the same value as the basic speed signal V0. That is, the measurement marker moves by an amount corresponding to the rotation of the trackball. Conversely, if the measurement marker 12 is located near the skull 13 of the fetus and the luminance of the pixel at that coordinate is 15, the moving speed coefficient at that time is 1/16. Accordingly, the measurement marker moving speed Vm becomes a value of 1/16 of the basic speed signal V0. That is, the measurement marker moves at a speed of 1/16 of the rotation speed of the trackball.

Here, the conversion table 11 shown in FIG.
The moving speed coefficient K decreases as the luminance of the pixel increases, and increases as the luminance of the pixel decreases. Therefore,
The measurement marker 12 operates slowly when its coordinates are near the skull 13, that is, in a portion where the luminance of the pixel is high and bright, and conversely, it moves quickly in a portion where the coordinates of the pixel away from the skull 13 have low luminance. The measurement marker 12 is
In this way, the moving speed changes according to the brightness of the pixels of the tomographic image, so that the trackball can be easily aligned without being delicately moved in accordance with the tomographic image or quickly rotated as in the related art, The measurement of the target site of the subject can be performed accurately and quickly. In this example, a linear conversion table is used to convert the luminance signal range of the pixel from 0 to 15 and convert the luminance signal of the pixel into the moving speed coefficient K. However, the conversion table used is In addition, by using an object having a wider range or a non-linear object depending on the target part to be measured, the target part of the subject can be measured more accurately and quickly. Further, the marker coordinate calculating section 9 and the integrating section 10 can be realized by software.

[0021]

According to the present invention, the moving speed of the measurement marker is measured at the time of measuring the target part of the subject by measuring the pixel speed of the ultrasonic tomographic image displayed on the screen of the display device. The moving speed is slower in the measurement part that varies according to the brightness of the
Since the moving speed is increased in portions other than the measurement portion, the measurement of the target portion of the subject can be performed accurately and quickly.

[Brief description of the drawings]

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

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram illustrating a conversion table of a moving speed coefficient stored in a storage device of the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing a screen display example when a target site is measured by the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Probe 2 ... Ultrasonic transmission / reception part 3 ... Image processing part 4 ... Display device 5 ... Operation console 6 ... Control part 7 ... Storage device 8 ... Pointing device 9 ... Marker coordinate calculation part 10 ... Integrator 11 ... Conversion table 12: marker for measurement 13: skull

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A probe transmits and receives an ultrasonic wave into and from a subject,
The received reflected echo signal is processed to form an image signal, the image signal is displayed as an ultrasonic tomographic image, and an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus having a unit for measuring a target portion based on the displayed tomographic image is provided. An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus comprising: means for changing a moving speed of a measurement marker in accordance with luminance of a pixel of the tomographic image when measuring the target portion.