JP2003190155A - System and method for ultrasonic imaging - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To optimize sticking range shown by guidelines in accordance with the thickness of a stick needle. <P>SOLUTION: An operator inputs the thickness information on the stick needle from an input part, and on the basis of the thickness information, a controller part controls arcuate angles 410 and 420 of guidelines 401-404. Therefore, the sticking ranges different for every thickness of the stick needle are set, the irreducibly minimum sticking range is displayed with the guidelines 401-404 and the arcuate angles 410 and 420 are manually set. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2003,JPO

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention obtains a B-mode image in the imaging range of a subject by repeatedly irradiating the imaging range with ultrasonic waves, and further inserts a puncture needle into the imaging range. Ultrasonic imaging apparatus and method.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Recently, while observing a B-mode image of an ultrasonic imaging apparatus, a puncture needle is inserted into the imaging range of a subject,
BACKGROUND ART Extraction of a target body fluid or tissue of an affected part is performed. According to this method, the body fluid or tissue of the affected part of the subject can be extracted easily and reliably. On the other hand, when the puncture needle is inserted into the subject, the puncture needle bends, and the puncture needle cannot be inserted into the target affected part of the subject. Therefore, the insertion range of the puncture needle is displayed on the B-mode image by two guidelines (guide line), and the operator (operato)
r) has been made so that it can be easily inserted (see Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 5-176922).

[0003]

However, according to the above-mentioned prior art, the range of insertion by the two guidelines is wide. That is, since there are various puncture needles of various thicknesses, and the state of insertion into the subject is also different, the size of the curvature varies and the puncture needle is inserted under the condition that the curvature is maximum. It was necessary to set the range.

In particular, when a thick puncture needle is used, since the curvature at the time of insertion is extremely small, the insertion range on the B-mode image is too wide and causes an error. From these things, it is extremely important to realize how to optimize the insertion range indicated by the guideline according to the thickness of the puncture needle.

The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems of the prior art, and ultrasonic waves capable of optimizing the insertion range indicated by the guideline according to the thickness of the puncture needle. An object is to provide an imaging device and method.

[0006]

[Means for Solving the Problems]
In order to achieve the object, an ultrasonic imaging apparatus according to the invention of a first aspect is an ultrasonic imaging unit that repeatedly irradiates an imaging range of a subject with ultrasonic waves to repeatedly acquire B-mode images in the imaging range. And an insertion means for inserting a puncture needle in the imaging range, wherein two guidelines indicating the puncture range of the puncture needle are displayed on the B-mode image. It is characterized by comprising display means and control means for controlling the position of the guideline based on the input information of the operator.

According to the invention of the first aspect, the two guide lines indicating the insertion range of the puncture needle are displayed on the B-mode image by the display means, and the position of the guide line is controlled by the control means by the operator. Since the control is based on the input information, it is possible to optimize the insertion range indicated by the guideline based on the input information of the operator.

Further, according to the ultrasonic imaging apparatus of the invention of the second aspect, the guideline is characterized by being two straight lines which form a boundary of the insertion area in a fan shape.
According to the invention of the second aspect, since the guideline is defined as two straight lines that form a boundary of the fan-shaped insertion range, the insertion range along the insertion direction of the puncture needle is designated. You can

Further, according to the ultrasonic imaging apparatus of the invention of the third aspect, the input information is the thickness of the puncture needle. According to the invention of the third aspect, since the input information is the thickness of the puncture needle, the insertion range can be changed according to the thickness of the puncture needle.

Further, according to the ultrasonic imaging apparatus of the invention of the fourth aspect, the control means controls the sector arc angle based on the thickness information to change the position of the guide line. It is characterized by comprising an angle control means for controlling.

According to the invention of the fourth aspect, the control means controls the fan-shaped arc angle based on the thickness information, and the angle control means changes the position of the guide line. The fan-shaped insertion area can be expanded or narrowed in the arc direction.

Further, according to the ultrasonic imaging apparatus of the invention of the fifth aspect, the angle control means controls the arc angle to be small when the thickness information is large, and the thickness information is When it is small, the arc angle is controlled to be large.

According to the invention of the fifth aspect, the angle control means controls the arc angle to be small when the thickness information is large, and controls the arc angle to be large when the thickness information is small. Therefore, if the puncture needle is thick,
Since the bending is small, the insertion range can be made small, and when the puncture needle is thin, the bending can be made large and the insertion range can be made large.

According to the ultrasonic imaging apparatus of the sixth aspect of the invention, the input information is the fan-shaped arc angle. According to the invention of the sixth aspect, since the input information is a fan-shaped arc angle, the operator can directly change the position of the guideline.

Further, according to the ultrasonic imaging apparatus of the invention of the seventh aspect, the control means uses the thickness information as the input information in an initial state, and the arc angle information according to an instruction from an operator. Is provided as the input information.

According to the invention of the seventh aspect, the control means uses the thickness information as the input information in the initial state, and the arc angle information as the input information by the switching means according to an instruction from the operator. Can manually change the insertion area depending on the situation.

Further, according to the ultrasonic imaging apparatus of the invention of the eighth aspect, the B-mode image in the imaging range is repeatedly acquired by repeatedly irradiating the imaging range of the subject with ultrasonic waves, and the imaging range is obtained. An ultrasonic imaging method in which a puncture needle is inserted into the B mode image, wherein two guide lines indicating the insertion range of the puncture needle are displayed on the B-mode image, and the position of the guide line is set as operator input information. It is characterized in that it is controlled based on.

According to the eighth aspect of the invention, two guide lines indicating the insertion range of the puncture needle are displayed on the B-mode image, and the position of these guide lines is controlled based on the operator's input information. Therefore, the insertion range indicated by the guideline can be changed based on the information input by the operator.

[0019]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Preferred embodiments of an ultrasonic imaging apparatus and method according to the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings. The present invention is not limited to this.

First, the overall configuration of the ultrasonic imaging apparatus according to this embodiment will be described. FIG. 1 shows the overall configuration of an ultrasonic imaging apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention, and illustrates an ultrasonic imaging apparatus that electronically scans a living body with ultrasonic waves in sector type. is doing.

This ultrasonic imaging apparatus is provided with a probe unit 101,
Transmitter / receiver 102, signal processor 103, cine memory (ci
memory) section 104, screen display control section 105,
Display unit 106, input unit 107, controller (cont
Roller) portion 108, puncture guide (guide) 1
09 and a puncture needle 110 are provided.

The probe unit 101 electronically scans a portion for transmitting and receiving ultrasonic waves, that is, an imaging range of a living body while irradiating the ultrasonic waves, and at the same time, an ultrasonic echo (echo) reflected from the inside of the living body. This is the part for receiving. Although not shown in the drawing, the probe unit 101 has piezoelectric elements arranged in an array, and
Switching (sw) for selectively driving these piezoelectric elements
and an (etching) circuit is provided.

A puncture guide 109 is attached to the probe portion 101, and a puncture needle 110 is inserted into the subject 100 through this guide. In the figure, the subject 1
00 is shown, showing a state in which an organ inside the subject 100 has been punctured.

The transmission / reception unit 102 is connected to the probe unit 101 by a coaxial cable, and generates an electric signal for driving the piezoelectric element of the probe unit 101 while receiving the received ultrasonic wave. This is the part that performs the first-stage amplification of the echo signal.

The signal processing unit 103 is a unit for performing a process for generating a B-mode image in real time from the ultrasonic echo signal amplified by the transmitting / receiving unit 102. Specific processing contents include, for example, delay addition processing of received ultrasonic echo signals and A / D (analog).
/ Digital) conversion processing, and processing for writing the converted digital information as B-mode image information in the cine memory unit 104 described later.

The cine memory unit 104 includes a signal processing unit 103.
It is an image memory for accumulating the B-mode image information generated in (1). The screen display control unit 105 includes the signal processing unit 10
3 is a portion for performing display frame rate conversion of the B-mode image information generated in 3 and controlling the shape and position of image display.

The display unit 106 is a unit for converting the display frame rate by the screen display control unit 105 and visually displaying information on the shape and position of the image display to the operator.

The input section 107 is a section which gives the controller section 108 operation input information by an operator, for example, input information such as thickness information of the puncture needle. The controller unit 108 receives the operation input information given from the input unit 107,
In addition, it is a part for controlling the operation of each part of the ultrasonic imaging apparatus described above based on a program (program) and data (data) stored in advance.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the configuration of the controller unit 108 according to the present invention. Controller unit 108
Indicates the thickness information 201 and the correspondence table (table) 20.
2, arc angle information 203, and a switching unit 204.
The thickness information 201 and the arc angle information 203 are input to the input unit 1.
It is input by the operator from 07. Here, the arc angle information 203 stores the arc angle value specified by the operator.

The correspondence table 202 is a correspondence table of the thickness of the puncture needle and the arc angle, which is experimentally obtained and differs depending on the type of the probe unit 101. The switching unit 204 outputs the output of the arc angle value to the screen display control unit 105 in correspondence table 2
02 output is switched to arc angle information 203 output.

Next, referring to FIG. 3, the controller unit 108
The operation of will be described. First, the operator inputs the thickness of the puncture needle 110 from the input unit 107 (step S301). This input information is the controller unit 10
8 is stored in the thickness information 201. Here, the input information may be any information such as the number of the puncture needle whose thickness is uniquely determined.

After that, the controller unit 108 obtains the guideline arc angle value from the correspondence table 202 using the thickness information 201 (step S302), and outputs this arc angle value to the screen display control unit 105. The screen display control unit 105 calculates the guideline display position based on the arc angle value from the controller unit 108, attaches the guideline information to the B-mode image, and displays the guideline information on the display unit 106 (step S303).

FIG. 4 shows an example of the display screen of the display unit 106. A B-mode image is displayed in the center of the display screen of FIG. The organ image and the puncture needle image shown in FIG. 1 are captured in this B-mode image. The guidelines 401 and 402 are displayed as dashed lines on the B-mode image. These guidelines 401 and 402 are used for the puncture guide 10 as shown by the dotted line which is not displayed on the display screen.
The arc angle 410 intersecting at the center existing in the vicinity of 9 and intersecting this dotted line is set to the arc angle value from the controller unit 108.

Here, FIG. 4A shows the case where the puncture needle 110 is thin, and FIG. 4B shows the case where the puncture needle 110 is thick. In the correspondence table 202 of the controller unit 108, the thicker the puncture needle, the smaller the arc angle value,
The smaller the puncture needle, the larger the arc angle value.
Therefore, in FIG. 4 (A) where the puncture needle 110 is thick, the arc angle 410 of the guidelines 401 and 402 is large, and in FIG. 4 (B) where the puncture needle 110 is thin, the arc angle 420 of the guidelines 403 and 404 is small. Has become.

Subsequently, it is determined whether the operator changes the insertion range according to the guideline (step S3
04), if the insertion range is not changed (step S3)
If the insertion range is changed (Yes at Step S304), the operator inputs the arc angle value from the input unit 107 to the arc angle information 203 of the controller unit 108 (No at 04). ).
Here, the switching unit 204 switches the output of the arc angle value to the screen display control unit 105 from the output of the correspondence table 202 to the output of the arc angle information 203 (step S30).
6).

Thereafter, the screen display control unit 105 calculates the display position of the guideline based on the arc angle value from the controller unit 108, attaches the guideline information on the B-mode image, and displays it on the display unit 106 ( Step S
307). Then, this process ends.

As described above, in the present embodiment, the operator inputs the thickness information of the puncture needle 110 from the input unit,
Based on this thickness information, the guidelines 401-404
Since the circular arc angles 410 and 420 are controlled, it is possible to display the minimum necessary puncturing range, which varies depending on the thickness of the puncture needle, with the guidelines 401 to 404.

Further, in this embodiment, the case where the sector type electronic scanning is used has been described.
Nvex type or linear type electronic scanning may be used. Further, not only electronic scanning but also mechanical scanning can be applied to an ultrasonic imaging apparatus that acquires a B-mode image and performs puncturing.

In step S304, the insertion range information of the puncture needle 110 changed by the operator is stored in the image display control section 105, so the operator
This insertion range information can be reproduced as necessary without performing the same setting again.

[0040]

As described above, according to the present invention,
On the B-mode image, the display means displays two guidelines indicating the insertion range of the puncture needle, and the position of these guidelines is controlled by the control means based on the operator's input information. Optimize the puncture range indicated in the guideline based on the input information, that is, use the guideline to obtain the minimum necessary puncture range that corresponds to the operator's input puncture needle thickness information. The effect of displaying and eventually improving the success frequency at the time of puncturing is exerted.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the overall configuration of an ultrasonic imaging apparatus.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a controller unit according to the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing an operation of a controller unit.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of a display screen according to the embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

100 subject 101 probe section 102 transmitter / receiver 103 signal processor 104 Cine memory section 105 screen display controller 106 display 107 Input section 108 Controller section 109 Puncture guide 110 puncture needle 201 Thickness information 202 correspondence table 203 Arc angle information 204 switching unit 401, 402, 403, 404 Guidelines 410, 420 arc angle

   ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continued front page    (72) Inventor Shinichi Amamiya             127, 4-7 Asahigaoka, Hino City, Tokyo             GE Yokogawa Medical System Co., Ltd.             Within (72) Inventor, Saiton, K.             127, 4-7 Asahigaoka, Hino City, Tokyo             GE Yokogawa Medical System Co., Ltd.             Within (72) Inventor Mitsuhiro Nozaki             127, 4-7 Asahigaoka, Hino City, Tokyo             GE Yokogawa Medical System Co., Ltd.             Within F-term (reference) 4C301 CC02 EE12 EE13 FF17 KK27                       KK30                 4C601 EE10 EE11 FF03 JC37 KK12                       KK31

Claims (8)

[Claims] 1. An ultrasonic imaging unit for repeatedly acquiring a B-mode image in the imaging range by repeatedly irradiating the imaging range of a subject with ultrasonic waves, and a piercing means for inserting a puncture needle into the imaging range. An ultrasonic imaging apparatus including :, which indicates a penetration range of the puncture needle on the B-mode image.
An ultrasonic imaging apparatus comprising: a display unit that displays a guideline of a book; and a control unit that controls a position of the guideline based on input information of an operator. 2. The ultrasonic imaging apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the guide line is two straight lines that form a boundary of the substantially fan-shaped insertion area. 3. The ultrasonic imaging apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the input information is a thickness of the puncture needle. 4. The angle control means for controlling the circular arc angle of the fan shape based on the thickness information and changing the position of the guide line based on the thickness information. Ultrasonic imaging device. 5. The angle control means controls the arc angle to be small when the thickness information is large, and controls the arc angle to be large when the thickness information is small. The ultrasonic imaging apparatus according to claim 4. 6. The ultrasonic imaging apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the input information is the sector-shaped circular arc angle. 7. The control means comprises, as an initial state, a switching means which sets the thickness information as the input information and sets the arc angle information as the input information according to an instruction from an operator. Item 7. The ultrasonic imaging device according to items 3 and 6. 8. An ultrasonic imaging method in which a B-mode image of the imaging range is repeatedly acquired by repeatedly irradiating the imaging range of a subject with ultrasonic waves, and a puncture needle is inserted into the imaging range. 2 shows the insertion range of the puncture needle on the B-mode image
An ultrasonic imaging method comprising: displaying a guideline of a book and controlling the position of the guideline based on input information of an operator.