JP2002028160A - Ultrasonograph - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an ultrasonograph easily capable of obtaining an image in which enhanced heart muscles are extracted. SOLUTION: An inner part of a subject is scanned by ultrasonic waves of such a sound pressure that contrast medium injected to the subject is not damaged at a low sound pressure harmonic B mode, and first ultrasonic image data in which a heart cavity range is imaged at high luminance compared to a heart muscle range is obtained. The inner part of the subject is then scanned by ultrasonic waves at a high sound pressure harmonic power Doppler mode or high sound pressure harmonic B mode, and second ultrasonic image data in which a heart cavity range and heart muscle range tissues are imaged is obtained. The heart cavity range is specified based on the first ultrasonic image data, the heart cavity range in the second ultrasonic image data is specified based on the specified heart cavity range, and the range is blank-processed, thereby an ultrasonic image 30 in which the heart muscle range is extracted is generated in this ultrasonograph.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

The present invention relates to an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus compatible with an ultrasonic contrast agent.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art An ultrasonic diagnostic imaging apparatus displays a tomographic image of a tissue by a non-invasive examination method.
Compared to other diagnostic equipment such as X-ray CT, MRI and nuclear medicine diagnostic equipment, it has features such as dynamic observation by real-time display, small and inexpensive equipment, high safety without exposure to X-rays, etc. are doing. Because of this, the circulatory organ (heart),
Ultrasound diagnosis is widely performed in the abdomen (liver, kidney, etc.), mammary gland, thyroid gland, urology, obstetrics and gynecology.

One of the imaging methods of this ultrasonic diagnostic imaging apparatus is a method called contrast echo. This is to enhance an ultrasonic scattering echo by administering an ultrasonic contrast agent composed of microbubbles or the like into a blood vessel of a subject. As an example of using the contrast echo in the circulatory region, there is an evaluation of whether or not blood flow is supplied into the myocardium. This evaluation is performed by injecting an ultrasonic contrast agent from a vein to enhance a blood flow signal and determining whether or not the myocardium is stained.

[0004] In recent years, as a display method of myocardial tissue blood flow using this ultrasonic contrast agent, there is a method of imaging based on a second harmonic of a received echo signal. Further, in order to further improve sensitivity and visibility, a harmonic Doppler method, a power pulse inversion method, and the like have been developed.

[0005] For example, when the heart is visualized by these methods, it is possible to obtain an image in which the heart chamber and the myocardium are stained. At this time, in general, the heart cavity where the density of the contrast agent is high is more strongly dyed, and the myocardium where the density of the contrast agent is relatively low is weakly dyed.

[0006]

For example, in a conventional ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus, when a heart is visualized in, for example, the B mode, signals from the tissue are processed in the same color. Distinguishing may be difficult. In other words, it may be difficult to distinguish between a heart cavity and a myocardium that is being stained, or it may be difficult to identify the boundary between the heart chamber and the myocardium.

Also, in the power mode, depending on the setting of the dynamic range and the like, it may be difficult to evaluate whether the image is being transmitted to the heart cavity or the myocardium as in the case of the B mode.

On the other hand, in order to solve such a problem, a method of imaging only the myocardium by changing the color of the high power portion of the map has been commercialized. However, it is not an essential solution.

[0009]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and has as its object to provide an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus capable of easily obtaining an image in which a stained myocardium is extracted. And

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided first data for scanning the inside of a subject with ultrasonic waves in a first imaging mode and generating first ultrasonic image data capable of specifying a heart chamber region. Generating means, and second data generating means for scanning the inside of the subject with ultrasonic waves by a second imaging mode and generating second ultrasonic image data in which the tissue of the heart chamber region and the myocardial region are visualized Image processing means for specifying a heart chamber region in the first ultrasonic image data, and specifying a heart chamber region or a myocardial region in the second ultrasonic image data based on the specified heart chamber region; An ultrasonic diagnostic imaging apparatus comprising:

According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided the apparatus according to the first aspect, wherein the ultrasonic waves radiated by the first imaging mode emit sound that does not destroy the contrast agent administered to the subject. It is characterized by pressure ultrasonic waves.

A third aspect of the present invention is the apparatus according to the first aspect, wherein the ultrasonic waves radiated by the second imaging mode emit a sound which destroys a contrast agent administered to the subject. It is characterized by pressure ultrasonic waves.

A fourth aspect of the present invention is an apparatus according to the first aspect, wherein the first data generating means and the second data generating means are provided.
The data generating means generates the first ultrasonic image data and the second ultrasonic image data based on the harmonic components of the ultrasonic waves, respectively.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in the apparatus according to the first aspect, the first imaging mode is a harmonic B mode.
And the second imaging mode is a harmonic power Doppler mode or a harmonic B mode.

A sixth aspect of the present invention is the apparatus according to the first aspect, wherein the first imaging mode is a low sound pressure harmonic B mode, and the second imaging mode is a high pressure harmonic. It is a power Doppler mode or a high-temperature harmonic B mode.

According to a seventh aspect of the present invention, there is provided an ultrasonic probe for transmitting and receiving an ultrasonic wave to and from a subject, and generating data corresponding to the amplitude intensity of the ultrasonic echo received by the ultrasonic probe. B-mode processing means, color processing means for generating speed-related data based on a frequency shift of an ultrasonic echo received by the ultrasonic probe,
A heart cavity region and a myocardial region are determined based on data output from the mode processing unit, and image processing of different contents is performed on the color data in the determined heart cavity region and the myocardial region to generate a display image. An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus comprising:

According to an eighth aspect of the present invention, the inside of the subject is scanned by ultrasonic waves in the harmonic B mode, and first ultrasonic image data imaged to such an extent that the heart cavity can specify the region is obtained. Scanning the inside of the subject with ultrasound in a harmonic power Doppler mode or a harmonic B mode to obtain second ultrasound image data in which a tissue of a heart chamber region and a myocardial region is imaged; Identifying a heart chamber region based on the first ultrasonic image data, and identifying a heart chamber region or a myocardial region in the second ultrasonic image data based on the identified heart chamber region. An ultrasonic imaging method characterized by the following.

According to the configuration described above, it is possible to easily obtain an image in which the stained myocardium is extracted. As a result, a doctor or the like can accurately grasp clinical information such as blood flowing correctly to the myocardium from the image.

The embodiments according to the present invention include inventions at various stages, and various inventions can be extracted by appropriate combinations of a plurality of disclosed structural requirements.
For example, when an invention is extracted by omitting some constituent elements from all the constituent elements described in the embodiments, when practicing the extracted invention, the omitted part is appropriately supplemented by well-known conventional techniques. It is something to be done.

[0020]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. In the following description, components having substantially the same functions and configurations are denoted by the same reference numerals, and repeated description will be made only when necessary.

First, a block configuration of an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.

FIG. 1 shows an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus 10 according to the present invention.
FIG.

The ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus 10 comprises a probe 11,
Transmission circuit 12, reception circuit 14, gray scale processing system (echo filter 16, detection circuit 18, LOG compression circuit 20, coordinate conversion circuit 22a), color processing system (wall filter 24, autocorrelation circuit 26, power / speed average /
It has a LOG compression circuit 28, a coordinate conversion circuit 22b), an image synthesis circuit 30, and a display monitor 32.

The probe 11 is a probe for irradiating a subject (patient) with ultrasonic waves for imaging and receiving a reflected wave from the subject, and is formed of a piezoelectric element or the like.

The transmission circuit 12 has a trigger generator, a delay circuit, and a pulser circuit (not shown). The transmission circuit 12 generates an electric pulse signal in accordance with a predetermined pulse sequence and sends the pulse signal to the vibrating element of the probe, thereby generating a predetermined focused ultrasonic pulse for each scanning line. This pulse sequence will be described later in detail based on two typical examples. Note that the pulse circuit has at least two systems, one for low sound pressure harmonic B mode for detecting only the heart chamber and one for high sound pressure harmonic power for detecting the heart chamber and myocardium.

The ultrasonic waves radiated into the subject via the probe 11 as described above are again received by the probe 11 as echo signals scattered by the tissue of the subject, and sent out to the receiving circuit 14.

The receiving circuit 14 has a preamplifier, an A / D converter, a receiving delay circuit, and an adder (not shown). The echo signal output to the receiving circuit 14 for each element of the probe 11 is amplified for each channel by a preamplifier, and A / D converted by an A / D converter. And
The echo signals after the A / D conversion are phased and added by the reception delay circuit. The echo signal after this addition has a reflection component from a direction corresponding to the reception directivity emphasized.

The echo signals subjected to the phasing addition processing in the receiving circuit 14 are sent out to processing systems corresponding to the respective photographing modes (gray scale or color) and are imaged. Hereinafter, the grayscale processing system and the color processing system will be described in this order.

(Gray-scale processing system) The echo filter 16 is a high-pass filter (high-pass filter), which removes low-frequency components from the frequency components of the echo signal to remove high-frequency components (in this case, second harmonics). Component).

The detection circuit 18 is a circuit for detecting the amplitude of the high frequency component extracted by the echo filter 16.

The LOG compression circuit 20 compresses the input echo signal with a predetermined logarithmic compression degree. By this compression processing, the difference in signal intensity based on the difference between the deep parts of the subject is adjusted.

The coordinate conversion circuit 22a is a LOG compression circuit 2
This is a circuit that receives an output signal from 0 and converts a scanning line signal sequence of an ultrasonic scan into a scanning line signal sequence of a general video format represented by a television or the like.

(Color processing system) Wall filter 24
Is a high-pass filter that removes unnecessary strong reflection (clutter) from the myocardium and the like captured in the Doppler mode or the like. The wall filter 24 further removes a reflection component based on tissue movement from the second harmonic component.

The autocorrelation circuit 26 is a circuit for calculating a correlation between the signals based on a plurality of echo signals having different phases and calculating an average frequency. The autocorrelation circuit 26 calculates the blood flow velocity and the like in the color Doppler.

Power / speed averaging / LOG compression circuit 28
Is a circuit for calculating the average value of the intensity of the echo signal and the blood flow velocity. Power / speed averaging / LOG compression circuit 2
8 compresses the input echo signal with a predetermined logarithmic compression degree.

The coordinate conversion circuit 22b receives an output signal from the power / speed averaging / LOG compression circuit 28, and converts a scanning line signal sequence of an ultrasonic scan into a scanning line signal of a general video format represented by a television or the like. This is a circuit for converting to a column.

The image synthesizing circuit 30 synthesizes a grayscale image and a color image, which have been subjected to the processing described later, into one frame, and outputs it to the display monitor 32 as a video signal.

The display monitor 32 is a monitor such as a CRT.

Next, the operation of the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus having the above configuration for selectively visualizing the myocardial staining by flash echo imaging will be described with reference to FIGS. An important point in the processing related to the myocardial imaging is that an image in which the heart chamber (blood flow) is emphasized and an image in which the myocardium and the heart chamber (blood flow) are displayed by the different imaging methods for the same slice are collected. Another object of the present invention is to blank out the heart cavity region in the latter image based on the heart cavity region in the former image, and to extract only the myocardium. At this time,
In the former image acquisition, a device that does not destroy the contrast agent is required. The control related to the myocardial imaging process is as follows.
This is executed by a control unit (not shown).

First, pulse sequence control for a certain scanning line, which is emitted from the transmission circuit 12 in the myocardial imaging process, will be described with reference to two examples.

Example 1 Myocardial Imaging Method Using Low Sound Pressure Harmonic B and Power Harmonic Doppler Method
A method for imaging myocardium by flash echo imaging using the power harmonic Doppler method will be described. That is, this is a technique in which the power harmonic Doppler method is used to display the myocardium and the heart chamber, and the low sound pressure harmonic B mode is used to display the heart chamber.

FIG. 2A shows a pulse sequence for a certain scanning line, which is executed in the imaging method according to Example 1. In FIG. 2A, first, low sound pressure fundamental ultrasonic waves for cardiac tissue imaging are irradiated. A tomographic image in a normal B mode can be obtained based on the ultrasonic waves. The reason for the low sound pressure is that it does not affect the contrast agent (perfusion) due to the subsequent ultrasonic scanning.

Next, a low sound pressure harmonic ultrasonic wave for a heart chamber image is irradiated. Generally, in the harmonic B mode of high sound pressure, a tissue harmonic component is also generated from myocardial tissue, and the myocardium is visualized. On the other hand, in the harmonic B mode of low sound pressure, the generation of the tissue harmonic component from the myocardial tissue is low, and a signal from a contrast agent that easily generates higher harmonic components than the tissue is detected. As a result, the heart chamber region is selectively detected. Further, since the irradiated ultrasonic waves have a low sound pressure, the influence on the contrast agent is small, and a sufficient contrast agent can be secured in the subsequent transmission and reception of the ultrasonic wave under the harmonic power condition.

It should be noted that a signal reflected from the epicardium or endocardium having a high reflection intensity may be detected in the scanning using the low sound pressure harmonic ultrasonic wave. However, since no strong echo signal is detected from the target myocardium, this is not a problem. Further, the ultrasonic contrast agent is supplied not only to the heart cavity but also to the myocardium. However, since the absolute amount is much lower than that of the heart chamber, the contrast brightness of the heart chamber appears as a large difference that can be clearly distinguished from the myocardium.

Subsequently, power Doppler ultrasonic waves for the myocardium and the heart cavity are transmitted and received a plurality of times (eight times in FIG. 2A).
This ultrasonic transmission is performed at a high sound pressure so as to actively excite or destroy the contrast agent. The power harmonic data thus obtained is scan-converted independently of each other.

The echo signals obtained by the above-described low sound pressure fundamental ultrasonic wave, low sound pressure harmonic ultrasonic wave, and power Doppler ultrasonic wave are sequentially subjected to a filtering process, a calculation process, a compression process, and the like. Each signal is independently converted into a video format scanning line signal sequence in the coordinate conversion circuits 22a and 22b, and written into the memory.

(Image Synthesis) Next, the coordinate conversion circuit 22
a, image processing performed by the image synthesizing circuit 30 with respect to each echo signal written in the memory at 22b.
The composition will be described.

First, a place (pixel) having high luminance is extracted from the image obtained by the low sound pressure harmonic B. This extraction can be performed, for example, by binarizing with a predetermined threshold. The high brightness area thus extracted corresponds to the heart chamber area. As described above, the density of the contrast agent is higher and the brightness is higher in the heart cavity region than in the myocardial region.

Next, in the ultrasonic image obtained by the power harmonic, a place (pixel) corresponding to the area determined to have high luminance is subjected to blanking processing to extract image information of only the myocardial area. That is, the myocardium and the heart cavity are visualized in the ultrasonic image based on the power harmonic in the coordinate conversion circuit 22b. In this image, by subjecting a region (pixel) corresponding to the heart cavity region extracted based on the image based on the low sound pressure harmonic B to blank processing, only a myocardial ultrasound image based on power harmonic can be extracted. At this time, gain adjustment, power display hue adjustment, and the like are also performed.

FIG. 3 is a diagram for explaining the image processing / synthesis, and schematically shows an ultrasonic image of the left ventricle.

FIG. 3A is an ultrasonic image of the left ventricle obtained by flash echo imaging using, for example, a normal B mode. As described above, when only the B mode is used, the signal from the tissue is also processed in the same color, so that it becomes difficult to distinguish between the myocardium and the heart chamber.

FIG. 3B shows an ultrasonic image of the left ventricle visualized by using, for example, low sound pressure harmonics. As shown in the figure, in the harmonic B mode of low sound pressure, almost no tissue harmonic component is generated from the myocardial tissue, and the heart chamber region is mainly extracted and imaged.

FIG. 3 (c) shows a myocardial staining by blanking a region corresponding to the heart chamber region shown in FIG. 3 (b) on an ultrasonic image of the left ventricle obtained using power harmonics. 7 shows an ultrasonic image from which only a shadow is extracted. The image shown in the figure is finally synthesized with the image of the heart chamber region shown in FIG. 3B and the image in the low sound pressure fundamental B mode, and is displayed on the display monitor 32.

The myocardial region can be displayed as an image by repeating the above-described series of ultrasonic transmission / reception and image processing.

According to such an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus 10, a myocardial region can be easily extracted and visualized. As a result, for example, it can be easily determined whether or not blood is supplied into the myocardium.

In the above-described image processing, the heart cavity region obtained by the harmonic B mode with a low sound pressure was blank-processed. On the other hand, for example, the harmonic B
A configuration may be adopted in which the image of the heart cavity region according to the mode is transparently displayed, and is superimposed (combined) with the image based on the power harmonic.

(Example 2—Imaging Method of Myocardium Using Low Sound Pressure Harmonic B and High Sound Pressure Harmonic B) Next, a method of imaging myocardium by flash echo imaging using low sound pressure harmonic B and high sound pressure harmonic B Will be described. That is, a high sound pressure harmonic B method is used to display the myocardium and the heart chamber, and a low harmonic B mode is used to display the heart chamber.

FIG. 2B shows a pulse sequence for a certain scanning line, which is executed in the imaging method according to Example 2. In FIG. 2B, first, a low sound pressure harmonic B-mode ultrasonic wave for imaging the heart chamber is irradiated. Based on this ultrasonic wave, an ultrasonic image in which the heart chamber region is enhanced as shown in FIG. 3B can be obtained. Since the irradiated ultrasonic waves have low sound pressure, they hardly affect the contrast agent (perfusion).

Next, a high sound pressure harmonic B mode ultrasonic wave for imaging the heart chamber and myocardium is irradiated. This ultrasonic transmission is performed at a high sound pressure so as to actively excite or destroy the contrast agent.

As described above, the low sound pressure harmonic ultrasonic wave,
Echo signals obtained by each of the high sound pressure harmonic ultrasonic waves are sequentially subjected to a filtering process, a detection process, a compression process, and the like. Each signal is independently converted into a video format scanning line signal sequence in the coordinate conversion circuit 22a, and written into an individual memory.

(Image Synthesis) Next, the coordinate conversion circuit 22
The image processing / combining executed by the image combining circuit 30 with respect to each echo signal written in the individual memory in FIG.

First, a place (pixel) having high luminance is extracted from an image obtained by the low sound pressure harmonic B mode. This extraction is the same as the processing described in Example 1.

Next, in the ultrasonic image obtained by the high sound pressure harmonic B mode, a blanking process is applied to a place (pixel) corresponding to the area determined to have high brightness, and image information of only the myocardial area is obtained. Take out. That is, the high sound pressure harmonic B in the coordinate conversion circuit 22a.
The myocardium and the heart chamber are visualized in the ultrasonic image according to the mode. In this image, by subjecting a region (pixel) corresponding to the heart cavity region extracted based on the image based on the low sound pressure harmonic B to a blank process, only a myocardial ultrasonic image in the high sound pressure harmonic B mode can be extracted.

In such a configuration, the myocardial region can be easily extracted and visualized. As a result, for example, it can be easily determined whether or not blood is supplied into the myocardium.

Although the present invention has been described based on the embodiments, various changes and modifications can be made by those skilled in the art within the scope of the concept of the present invention. It is understood that examples also fall within the scope of the present invention. For example, as shown in the following (1) to (3), various modifications can be made without changing the gist.

(1) In the above embodiment, the pulse sequence control in which the B mode and the power Doppler mode are alternately transmitted for the same scanning line has been described. On the other hand, the same result can be obtained even in a pulse sequence in which the B mode and the power Doppler mode are transmitted alternately in frame units. For example, in Example 1, after scanning for one frame in the low harmonic B mode, scanning for one frame is performed using the high sound pressure harmonic Doppler, and similar image processing may be performed.

(2) For the harmonic B mode image,
By performing a filling process using a spatial filter or the like, a uniform blanking process can be performed. That is, although there are pixels having a specific low luminance due to the speckle pattern in the heart chamber, the pixels are smoothed by the spatial filter. As a result, it is possible to prevent the presence of pixels that are not specifically blanked in the region that is obviously a heart chamber and should be blanked.

(3) In the above embodiment, the harmonic B mode image is used only for the blanking process of the harmonic Doppler, and the tissue image superimposed on the power harmonic image is a fundamental B mode image. The image of the heart chamber region by the image may be used in the blanking process of the harmonic Doppler and the composite image finally obtained.

(4) In the above embodiment, the mask processing is performed on the image obtained in the low sound pressure harmonic B mode. On the other hand, it is possible to obtain an image in which the region of the myocardium is clear even by processing such as changing the hue according to the luminance of the image in the B mode.

(5) The blanking process can be executed before the coordinate conversion.

[0071]

As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to easily obtain an image in which a stained myocardium is extracted. As a result, a doctor or the like can accurately grasp clinical information such as blood flowing correctly to the myocardium from the image.

[Brief description of the drawings]

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

FIG. 2 is a diagram for explaining a pulse sequence process for a certain scanning line, which is executed by the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram for explaining image processing executed by the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to the present invention. FIG. 3A shows an image of the left ventricle visualized by color / power harmonic. FIG. 3B shows an image of the left ventricle visualized by low sound pressure harmonics. FIG. 3C is a diagram illustrating the left ventricle in which only the myocardium is imaged by the image processing performed by the ultrasound diagnostic apparatus.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 ... Ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus 11 ... Probe 12 ... Transmission circuit 14 ... Receiving circuit 16 ... Echo filter 18 ... Detection circuit 20 ... LOG compression circuit 22a, 22b ... Coordinate conversion circuit 24 ... Wall filter 26 ... Autocorrelation circuit 28 ... Power / Speed averaging & LOG compression circuit 30 ... Image synthesis circuit 32 ... Display monitor

Claims (8)

[Claims] A first data generating means for scanning the inside of a subject with ultrasonic waves in a first imaging mode and generating first ultrasonic image data capable of specifying a heart chamber region; A second data generating unit configured to scan the inside of the subject with ultrasonic waves according to an imaging mode and generate second ultrasonic image data in which a heart chamber region and a myocardial region tissue are imaged; Image processing means for specifying a heart chamber region in the ultrasound image data and specifying a heart chamber region or a myocardial region in the second ultrasonic image data based on the specified heart chamber region. Ultrasonic diagnostic imaging apparatus. 2. The ultrasonic wave according to claim 1, wherein the ultrasonic wave emitted in the first imaging mode is an ultrasonic wave having a sound pressure that does not destroy a contrast agent administered to the subject. Diagnostic device. 3. The ultrasonic wave according to claim 1, wherein the ultrasonic wave emitted in the second imaging mode is an ultrasonic wave having a sound pressure that destroys a contrast agent administered to the subject. Diagnostic device. 4. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said first data generating means and said second data generating means are configured to generate said first ultrasonic image data and said second ultrasonic image data based on a harmonic component of each ultrasonic wave. 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein
An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus as described in the above. 5. The ultrasonic apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the first imaging mode is a harmonic B mode, and the second imaging mode is a harmonic power Doppler mode or a harmonic B mode. Diagnostic imaging device. 6. The first imaging mode is a low sound pressure harmonic B mode, and the second imaging mode is a high pressure harmonic power Doppler mode or a high pressure harmonic B mode. Item 7. The ultrasonic image diagnostic apparatus according to Item 1. 7. An ultrasonic probe for transmitting and receiving ultrasonic waves to and from a subject, B-mode processing means for generating data corresponding to the amplitude intensity of the ultrasonic echo received by the ultrasonic probe, A color processing unit that generates data related to speed based on a frequency shift of an ultrasonic echo received by the ultrasonic probe; a heart chamber region and a myocardial region based on data output from the B-mode processing unit And an image processing unit that performs image processing of different contents in the determined heart cavity region and myocardial region on the color data to generate a display image. apparatus. 8. A step of scanning the inside of the subject with ultrasonic waves in a harmonic B mode to obtain first ultrasonic image data imaged to such an extent that a heart cavity can specify the region, and a harmonic power Doppler mode. Or harmonic B
Scanning the inside of the subject with an ultrasonic wave according to a mode to obtain second ultrasonic image data in which a tissue of a heart chamber region and a myocardial region tissue are imaged; and a step of obtaining a heart based on the first ultrasonic image data. Identifying a cavity region and identifying a cardiac cavity region or a myocardial region in the second ultrasonic image data based on the identified cardiac cavity region. .