JP2006204392A - Ultrasonic diagnostic equipment and ultrasonic signal analyzer - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide ultrasonic diagnostic equipment which enables an image necessary for a contrast-medium inspection to be loaded into memory with a limited capacity in an uncompressed form and, and an ultrasonic signal analyzer. <P>SOLUTION: This ultrasonic diagnostic equipment comprises the function of reading out a stored signal and performing image display or image analysis, after either of an image signal acquired by an ultrasonic inspection, wherein a reflected wave of an ultrasonic wave from a subject is received by transmitting the ultrasonic wave into the subject, and an original signal constituting the image is temporarily stored in a storage device. The ultrasonic diagnostic equipment comprises: a means for temporarily loading only some of the stored signals into the memory; and a means for performing at least either of the image display and the image analysis from the signal loaded by the means for temporarily loading only some of the stored signals into the memory. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus and an ultrasonic signal analysis apparatus, and in particular, a function of temporarily storing an image obtained during an examination or a signal from which the image is obtained and then reading it again to display or analyze an image. The present invention relates to an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus and an ultrasonic signal analyzing apparatus.

  An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus is a medical imaging apparatus that visualizes a structure in a living body by transmitting ultrasonic waves into the living body and receiving ultrasonic waves reflected and scattered from the living body. Conventionally, the examination of the subject is observed while displaying the image in real time, and when the image to be measured is obtained, the measurement is stopped and the measurement is performed. It was done by repeating until an image was obtained.

  By the way, in recent years, it has become possible to more accurately evaluate blood flow dynamics using an ultrasonic contrast agent. This is because the ultrasound contrast agent is composed of microbubbles, which cause the microbubbles to scatter more strongly, can enhance the ultrasound signal from the bloodstream, and the scattering nonlinearity is strong. This is based on the property that frequency components other than the used frequency can be generated at the time of scattering.

  In the examination using this contrast agent, the process in which the contrast agent spreads to the organ or tumor after the injection of the contrast agent is important for diagnosis. Therefore, the image is stopped halfway like the conventional examination method. Cannot be measured. Therefore, in the contrast agent examination, first, an image or an original signal constituting the image is temporarily stored in some storage means, and is later read and measured.

  However, after the injection of the contrast agent, it may be necessary to observe for several minutes until the collapse of the microbubbles progresses and stabilizes, and it becomes unsuitable for observation of blood flow dynamics. It is also necessary to collect and save the video data.

  In order to solve this problem, for example, there has been proposed an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus including means for obtaining a time luminance curve related to the region of interest of an image and means for selectively storing an image based on the time luminance curve. (For example, refer to Patent Document 1). According to this apparatus, an image repeatedly generated at a constant period is selectively stored based on the time luminance curve, and a limited storage capacity can be used efficiently.

In terms of storage alone, a large amount of data can be stored using a data compression technique or the like, but there are the following problems when measuring using the data.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 9-24047

  In the method of imaging using an ultrasonic contrast agent, a method called “time change curve” is generally known when quantifying the state of contrast agent perfusion after contrast agent administration. This time change curve plots the time-series luminance change by taking time on the horizontal axis and luminance at a specific place on the vertical axis.

  FIG. 6 shows an example of an image of a time change curve displayed on the monitor. The operator wants to move the ROI (region of interest) in various ways and examine the time change of that portion as easily as possible. However, if the target image data is measured while being read from the storage means or decompressed during measurement, the response is extremely slow.

  Normally, the compressed image data is reproduced by repeating the procedure of decompressing and displaying only the part necessary for the present reproduction and deleting the part after the display is completed. That is, reproduction and decompression are performed simultaneously. However, when the ROI is moved, the luminance curve needs to be updated almost in real time. Therefore, the compressed data cannot be directly used for measurement, and must be loaded into the memory in an uncompressed form from the beginning. is there.

  Therefore, in order to use it for measurement, it is necessary that the data to be measured is loaded in a memory that is a work area in an uncompressed form. However, for example, when 20 frames / second of data is recorded for 5 minutes, the total number of frames is 6000 frames. To load all the data, a very large memory is required, which is appropriate in terms of cost. It can not be said.

  The present invention has been made in consideration of the above-described circumstances, and an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus and an ultrasonic signal analysis apparatus capable of loading an image necessary for contrast medium inspection into a memory of a limited capacity without being compressed. Is intended to provide.

  In the present invention, when loading the data collected by the analysis program, the frame is appropriately thinned out from the remaining amount of the memory and the amount of data included in the file, and the data is loaded into the memory. Solve the problem. In addition, when the operator selects a narrow range in time during the analysis, data that has been thinned out first and not loaded is loaded so that more detailed measurement can be performed.

  That is, in order to solve the above-described problem, the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to the present invention transmits an ultrasonic wave into a subject and reflects the reflected wave of the ultrasonic wave from the subject. A function of temporarily storing in the storage device either an image signal obtained by ultrasonic inspection that receives the image and a signal that constitutes the image, and then displaying the stored signal to perform image display or image analysis And a means for temporarily loading only a part of the stored signal into a memory and a means for performing at least one of image display and image analysis from the signal loaded by the loading means. Is.

  Here, the signal to be loaded may be an ultrasonic image signal as described in claim 2 or a signal before being reconstructed into an image as described in claim 3. May be.

  Further, as described in claim 4, when loading the signal to be loaded, only a part of the frame data can be loaded. Further, as described in claim 5, When loading only a part of the frame data, it is possible to indicate the degree of frame thinning and to ask the operator the time range for loading the data.

  On the other hand, in order to solve the above-described problem, an ultrasonic signal analyzing apparatus according to claim 6 transmits an ultrasonic wave into a subject stored in a storage device, and a reflected wave of the ultrasonic wave from the subject. In an ultrasonic signal analysis apparatus having a function of reading out either an image signal obtained by an ultrasonic inspection for receiving an image or a signal that is a source of the image and performing image display or image analysis, Means for temporarily loading only a part of the signal into the memory and means for performing at least one of image display and image analysis from the signal loaded by the loading means.

  According to the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus and the ultrasonic signal analysis apparatus according to the present invention, it is possible to load an image necessary for contrast medium inspection into a memory having a limited capacity in an uncompressed form.

  Hereinafter, an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus and an ultrasonic signal analysis apparatus according to embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings. The ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus 1 shown in FIG. 1 includes an ultrasonic probe 11 and each unit on the apparatus main body side connected to the ultrasonic probe 11, that is, a control unit 21 having a CPU 211 and a memory 212 as main components. The transmission unit 22, the reception unit 23, the beam former unit 24, the B / M mode signal processing unit 25, and the CFM (operated as a whole under the static and dynamic control from the control unit 21. Color flow mapping) mode signal processing unit 26, image reconstruction unit 27 for B / M mode, image reconstruction unit 28 for CFM mode, video interface 29, monitor 30, and operation device (various switches by the operator) In addition to a keyboard, mouse, trackball, etc. that can be operated and input, the storage device stores image data. It consists of 31.

  The basic operation of the apparatus configuration shown in FIG. 1 will be described. First, under the control of the control unit 21, the ultrasonic wave from the ultrasonic probe 11 is received in the living body of the subject in response to the drive pulse from the transmission unit 23. Sent to. As a result, the ultrasonic wave returned by the reflection and scattering from the living body is received by the ultrasonic probe 11, and a minute electric signal from each element is amplified by the receiving unit 23. This amplified received signal is AD (analog / digital) converted by the beamformer unit 24, phased and added after an appropriate delay is applied, and thereby subjected to focusing processing. The signal thus focused is subjected to processing specific to each mode in the B / M mode signal processing unit 25 or the CFM mode signal processing unit 26.

  That is, in the B / M mode signal processing unit 25, after the band pass filter process is performed on the received signal, the envelope component is detected, and the LOG (logarithmic) compression process is further performed. In addition, processing such as edge enhancement may be performed.

  The CFM mode signal processing unit 26 performs a high-pass filter (referred to as an MTI filter or a Wall filter) for separating the tissue signal and the blood flow signal, and then detects the blood flow and the moving speed of the tissue. Autocorrelation processing is performed. In addition, nonlinear processing for reducing and deleting tissue signals may be performed.

  Thereafter, the signals that have undergone specific processing in each mode are mapped and imaged by the image reconstruction units 27 and 28 at positions corresponding to transmission / reception of ultrasonic beams. The image signal for B / M mode and the image signal for CFM mode obtained in this way are combined with various information (including graphs) about the image in the video interface unit 29, and the layout processing for monitor display is performed. It is configured as an applied image and is displayed on the monitor 30.

  The storage device 31 stores various application programs, image data obtained by inspection, and the like. The storage device 31 may be an HDD fixed inside the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus 1 or may be of a format that can be written to a freely removable recording medium.

  The ultrasonic signal is subjected to various processing in each unit described above and sent to the next unit. In the present invention, the output of each part is stored in the HDD 212 or the like via the memory 212 of the control unit 21 or directly. It is assumed that the data can be stored in the device 31. Although it is described in FIG. 1 that output can be performed from all units, only a part of the signals, for example, only image signals output from the image reconstruction units 27 and 28 can be stored. Alternatively, only the signal that is output from the receiving unit 23 and that is the source of the image may be stored. It is also possible to save a signal being processed inside the unit.

  In the present embodiment, the present invention is processed by the CPU 211 of the control unit 21 executing the analysis application program read from the storage device 31. At this time, the memory 212 is used as a work area for the CPU 211.

  Next, the processing of the analysis program installed in the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus 1 will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. An example will be described in which a file includes data for 6000 frames, and only an image for 600 frames can reside in the memory 212.

  The analysis program knows that only 600 frames of data can be loaded into the memory from the free space of the memory 212 used by the system. First, when the analysis program loads a data file from the storage device 31 to the memory 212, data information indicating the total amount of the file is read (step S1).

  The data indicating the total amount of the file includes the number of frames included in the file, the type of data included in the file (B mode, color mode, etc.), scanning conditions (number of scanning lines, number of samples included in scanning lines), etc. There is. From these, a thinning rate is determined (step S2).

  In the present embodiment, as shown in FIG. 3A, the file includes data for 6000 frames, so the analysis program performs the 10: 1 thinning rate as shown in FIG. Thus, data is loaded (step S5).

  After the data is thinned and loaded, the data is displayed as an image (step S6). When data other than image data is loaded, the program executes processing necessary for image display to create and display an image.

  At the time of image display, since the data is thinned out, as shown in FIG. 3C, it is possible to reproduce and display all images in a short time. For example, this data is originally data of 6000 frames for 5 minutes, but by thinning out to 600 frames, the whole can be played back in 30 seconds. This is preferable in order to observe the whole in a short time. Of course, since the thinning rate is known, it is possible to perform cine regeneration corresponding to the real time (5 minutes).

  While viewing the image, the operator analyzes the time change curve. By placing the ROI on the image, this program calculates the value of each frame using the average value of the data in the ROI as the representative value of the frame, and displays it as a time-varying curve. However, since all data is loaded in the memory in an uncompressed state and the number of frames is reduced, a graph can be created and drawn in a very short time.

  Next, a modification of this embodiment will be described. FIG. 4A shows a case where thinning has already been performed at the time of data collection or the scan sequence has been changed and the frame rate is not uniform. In such a case, as shown in FIG. 4B, thinning may be performed only on the portion with the high frame rate in the first half.

  Further, for example, as shown in the flowchart of FIG. 5, when loading data, the operator may display a message dialog to confirm whether or not the data can be loaded at this thinning rate (step S3). Further, in this dialog, it may be asked whether the entire data recorded in the file is thinned out and loaded, or whether the first 600 frames or 600 frames in a desired time zone are loaded (step S4). ).

  Further, the operator may select a desired thinning rate or a desired time zone by maximizing 600 frames. When a specific range is selected from the entire time range of data loaded by the operator, data outside the range is deleted from the memory, and necessary data is reloaded according to the thinning-out conditions optimum for the range. For example, when the time range of the analysis target is set to one fifth of the whole, the data that has been the thinning ratio of 10 to 1 until then can be changed to 2 to 1 and the data can be loaded into the memory.

  Further, in the present embodiment, an example in which an image obtained by an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus and data that is the basis thereof are temporarily stored in a storage device and the data is read and analyzed by the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus will be described as an example. However, it can be separated from the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus to be an ultrasonic signal analyzing apparatus that reads and analyzes the data at another workstation or the like.

  Furthermore, even if the image obtained by the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus and the data that is the basis thereof are directly loaded into the memory 212 of the control unit 21 and analyzed, they are stored in a memory other than the control unit 21 of the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus. This may be performed when moving the stored data to the memory 212 in the control unit 21.

  Furthermore, the whole or each part of the processing program processed in the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus or the ultrasonic signal analyzing apparatus may be recorded on an information recording medium or a computer readable medium, and additionally, this computer readable medium is included. It may be formed as a computer program product. As this information recording medium, for example, semiconductor devices such as ROM, RAM, flash memory and memory devices such as integrated circuits, optical disks, magneto-optical disks (CD-ROM / DVDRAM and DVDROM / MO, etc.), magnetic recording media <magnetic disk > (Hard disk, flexible disk, ZIP, etc.) or the like may be used, and it may be recorded on a nonvolatile memory card, IC card, networked resource, or the like.

  The embodiments described above are for illustrative purposes and do not limit the scope of the invention. Accordingly, those skilled in the art can employ embodiments in which each or all of these elements are replaced by equivalents thereof, and these embodiments are also included in the scope of the present invention.

1 is a schematic block diagram showing the overall configuration of an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. The schematic flowchart which shows the process example of an analysis program. It is a figure explaining a thinning process, (a) is before thinning, (b) is after thinning, (C) is a figure explaining that the display time was shortened as a result. It is a figure explaining the thinning-out process when a frame rate is non-uniform | heterogenous, (a) is before thinning-out, (b) is a figure explaining after thinning-out. The flowchart which shows the example of a process which concerns on the modification of this embodiment. The figure which shows the example of a display on the monitor in contrast agent test | inspection.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus 11 Ultrasonic probe 21 Control unit 211 CPU
212 Memory 22 Transmitter 23 Receiver 24 Beamformer 25 B / M mode signal processor 26 CFM mode signal processor 27 Image reconstruction unit (for B / M mode)
28 Image reconstruction unit (for CFM mode)
29 Video interface 30 Monitor 31 Storage device 40 Operation device

Claims (6)

Either an image signal obtained by an ultrasonic inspection for transmitting an ultrasonic wave into the subject and receiving a reflected wave of the ultrasonic wave from the subject and a signal constituting the image are temporarily stored in a storage device. After storing, in the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus having a function of reading the stored signal and performing image display or image analysis,
Means for temporarily loading only a part of the stored signal into a memory;
Means for performing at least one of image display and image analysis from the signal loaded by the loading means;
An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus comprising: The ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the loaded signal is an ultrasonic image signal. The ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the loaded signal is a signal before being reconstructed into an image. 2. The ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to claim 1, wherein when loading the signal to be loaded, only data of a part of frames is loaded. 5. The ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to claim 4, wherein when only a part of the frame data is loaded, the degree of frame thinning is indicated, and the operator is asked about the time range for loading the data. An image signal obtained by an ultrasonic examination stored in a storage device and transmitting an ultrasonic wave into the subject and receiving a reflected wave of the ultrasonic wave from the subject, and a source signal constituting the image In an ultrasonic signal analysis apparatus having a function of reading out any one and performing image display or image analysis,
Means for temporarily loading only a part of the stored signal into a memory;
An ultrasonic signal analyzing apparatus comprising: means for performing at least one of image display and image analysis from a signal loaded by the loading means.

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