JP2013027468A - Ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus and control program - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus which can achieve brightness change of the ultrasonic image more actually.SOLUTION: The ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus 1 includes: a sound creation part 7 for creating sound data based on information of the mean brightness of an area of interest set in an ultrasonic image; and a loudspeaker 8 for emitting a sound according to the brightness based on the sound data output from the sound creation part 7. The sound output from the loudspeaker 8 varies at least in either the volume or the quality of the sound depending on the brightness. A sound according to the overall mean brightness of the ultrasonic image may be output from the loudspeaker 8.

Description

  The present invention relates to an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus and a control program therefor.

  The ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus is an apparatus that displays an ultrasonic image based on an echo signal obtained by performing an ultrasonic scan on a subject. In such an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus, a change in luminance of an ultrasonic image may be observed. For example, there is a case where a contrast medium is injected into the subject and an ultrasonic image in which the luminance of the observation target portion gradually increases due to the inflow of the contrast medium may be observed. In order to facilitate the observation of such a luminance change, for example, Patent Literature 1 discloses an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus that displays a luminance change curve of a region of interest set in an ultrasonic image.

JP 2011-115457 A

  As described above, conventionally, a change in luminance of an ultrasonic image has been observed only from visual information. However, there is a demand for an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus and a control program for the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus that can realize a change in luminance of an ultrasonic image.

  The invention made in order to solve the above-mentioned subject is an ultrasonic diagnostic device provided with the sound output part which outputs the sound according to the brightness of the predetermined field in an ultrasonic picture.

  According to the above aspect of the invention, since the sound output unit outputs a sound according to the luminance of the ultrasonic image, it is possible to know not only the visual viewpoint but also the state of the luminance change by hearing, You can feel the change in brightness more.

1 is a block diagram showing an example of an embodiment of an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to the present invention. It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the display control part in the ultrasonic diagnosing device shown in FIG. It is a flowchart which shows the effect | action of the ultrasonic diagnosing device of embodiment. It is a figure which shows an example of the display part on which the ultrasonic image was displayed. It is a figure which shows an example of the display part by which the region of interest was set to the ultrasonic image. It is explanatory drawing of the block set to the region of interest. It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the display control part in the 3rd modification of embodiment. It is a flowchart which shows the effect | action in a 3rd modification.

  Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus 1 shown in FIG. 1 includes an ultrasonic probe 2, a transmission / reception unit 3, an echo data processing unit 4, a display control unit 5, a display unit 6, a sound creation unit 7, a speaker 8, an operation unit 9, and a control unit 10. And an HDD (Hard Disk Drive) 11.

  The ultrasonic probe 2 scans an object from a plurality of ultrasonic transducers (not shown). The ultrasonic probe 2 receives an ultrasonic echo signal.

  The transmission / reception unit 3 supplies an electrical signal for transmitting an ultrasonic wave from the ultrasonic probe 2 under a predetermined scanning condition to the ultrasonic probe 2 based on a control signal from the control unit 10. The transmitter / receiver 3 performs signal processing such as A / D conversion and phasing addition processing on the echo signal received by the ultrasonic probe 2.

  The echo data processing unit 4 performs processing for creating an ultrasound image on the echo data output from the transmission / reception unit 3. For example, the echo data processing unit 4 performs B mode processing such as logarithmic compression processing and envelope detection processing to create B mode data.

  As shown in FIG. 2, the display control unit 5 has an image data creation unit 51 and an average luminance calculation unit 52. The image data creation unit 51 scans the data input from the echo data processing unit 4 with a scan converter to create ultrasound image data, and an ultrasound image G based on the ultrasound image data. (See FIG. 4 and the like) is displayed on the display unit 6. The image data creation unit 51 creates B mode image data based on, for example, B mode data, and causes the display unit 6 to display the B mode image.

  The image data creation unit 51 sets a region of interest R (see FIG. 5) in the ultrasonic image G based on an input for setting the region of interest R in the operation unit 9.

  The average luminance calculation unit 52 calculates the average luminance of the region of interest R set in the ultrasonic image G as will be described later. Details will be described later. Information on the average luminance is output to the sound creation unit 7.

  The display unit 6 includes, for example, an LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) or a CRT (Cathode Ray Tube).

  The sound creation unit 7 creates sound data based on the brightness information calculated by the average brightness calculation unit 52 (sound creation function). Details will be described later. The sound data is output to the speaker 8. The sound creation unit 7 is an example of an embodiment of a sound creation unit in the present invention.

  The speaker 8 outputs a sound based on the sound signal output from the sound creating unit 7. The sound output from the speaker 8 is a sound corresponding to the luminance of the region of interest R. Details will be described later. The speaker 8 is an example of an embodiment of a sound output unit in the present invention.

  The operation unit 9 includes a keyboard and a pointing device (not shown) for an operator to input instructions and information.

  The control unit 10 is configured to have a CPU (Central Processing Unit), although not particularly shown. The control unit 10 reads the control program stored in the HDD 11 and executes the functions of the transmission / reception unit 3, the echo data processing unit 4, the display control unit 5, and the sound creation unit 7.

  Now, the operation of the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus 1 of this example will be described based on the flowchart of FIG. In this example, a case where a contrast medium is injected into a subject and a luminance change of an observation site in an ultrasonic image is observed will be described as an example.

  First, in step S1, an ultrasonic image G is displayed on the display unit 6 as shown in FIG. In this example, the ultrasonic image G is a B-mode image. Specifically, first, the echo data processing unit 4 creates B-mode data based on an echo signal obtained by ultrasonic scanning by the ultrasonic probe 2. Then, based on the B-mode data, the image data creation unit 51 creates B-mode image data, and causes the display unit 6 to display a B-mode image based on the B-mode image data.

  Next, in step S2, the image data creation unit 51 sets a region of interest R in the ultrasonic image G as shown in FIG. Specifically, the operator operates the trackball or the like of the operation unit 9 and inputs to set the region of interest R in a desired region. The image data creation unit 51 sets the region of interest R in the ultrasound image G based on the input from the operation unit 9.

  The region of interest R is set to a region in the B-mode image displayed on the display unit 6 where the operator wants to observe the luminance change due to the injection of contrast medium.

  Next, in step S3, as shown in FIG. 6, the average luminance calculation unit 52 divides the region of interest R into a plurality of blocks Bl. Incidentally, although the block Bl is illustrated in FIG. 6 for convenience of explanation, it is assumed that the block Bl is not displayed in the actual ultrasonic image G.

  Next, in step S4, when the operator inputs to start the sound output function in the operation unit 9, the control unit 10 starts the sound output function. The operator also injects a contrast agent into the subject. The sound output function is a function for outputting a sound corresponding to the luminance in the region of interest R from the speaker 8 and starts when the operator operates the operation unit 9.

  When the sound output function is started in step S4, the average luminance calculation unit 52 calculates the average luminance of each block Bl in step S5. Next, in step S6, the average brightness calculation unit 52 calculates the overall average brightness of the region of interest R based on the average brightness of each block Bl. The average luminance calculation unit 52 outputs the calculated average luminance data BDav to the sound creation unit 7.

Next, in step S7, the sound creation unit 7 creates sound data SD based on the average luminance data BDav of the region of interest R. Specifically, when the creation function of the sound data SD is f,
SD = f (BDav)
It is. The sound creation unit 7 outputs the created sound data SD to the speaker 8.

  In this example, the sound data SD is noise sound data. For example, the noise sound is pink noise or white noise. The creation function f is a function such that the lower the brightness, the lower the volume of the sound data to be created, and the higher the brightness, the higher the volume.

  Next, in step S8, sound is output from the speaker 8. The output sound is a noise sound. The lower the average brightness in the region of interest R, the lower the volume, and the higher the average brightness, the higher the volume. Accordingly, after the contrast agent is injected, the noise sound output from the speaker 8 increases as the average luminance in the region of interest R increases.

  Next, in step S9, the control unit 10 determines whether or not there is a sound stop request. When an input for stopping output of sound is made in the operation unit 9, a sound stop request is input to the control unit 10. If there is no sound stop request (“NO” in step S9), the process returns to step S5. On the other hand, if there is a sound stop request (“YES” in step S9), the process proceeds to step S10, and the control unit 10 stops the sound output function.

  According to the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus of the present example described above, since the sound corresponding to the average luminance of the region of interest R is output from the speaker 8, the luminance change not only from a visual point of view but also from the auditory sense. You can know the situation and you can feel the brightness change more.

  Next, a modification of the above embodiment will be described. First, the first modification will be described. Depending on the average luminance in the region of interest R, the sound quality may be different from the sound volume. The sound quality includes the type of noise sound. In this case, the creation function f is, for example, a function that creates noise sound data having a stronger pink noise element as the average brightness is lower, and creating noise sound data having a stronger white noise element as the average brightness is higher. is there. Therefore, when a contrast medium is injected into the subject, a noise sound with a strong pink noise element is output from the speaker 8 when the average luminance in the region of interest R is low, and when the average luminance gradually increases, white noise is output. A noise sound having a strong noise element is output from the speaker 8.

  The sound data created by the sound creating unit 7 is not limited to noise sound data, and may be composite sound or pure sound data other than noise sound. The pitch of the sound may be changed according to the average luminance in the region of interest R. That is, the sound quality includes the level of sound.

  Both volume and sound quality may be changed according to the average luminance in the region of interest R.

  Next, a second modification will be described. In the above embodiment, the average luminance calculation unit 52 calculates the average luminance of the region of interest R set in the ultrasonic image G, but is not limited thereto. The average luminance calculation unit 52 may calculate the average luminance of the entire ultrasonic image G displayed on the display unit 6.

  Next, a third modification will be described. In the third modified example, as shown in FIG. 7, the display control unit 5 has a maximum luminance detecting unit 53 instead of the average luminance calculating unit 52. The maximum luminance detection unit 53 detects the maximum luminance in the region of interest R or the maximum luminance in the entire ultrasonic image G displayed on the display unit 6.

  In this example, as shown in FIG. 8, after the process of step S4, in step S5 ′, the maximum brightness detection unit 53 determines the maximum brightness in the region of interest R or the maximum brightness of the entire ultrasound image G. To detect.

  When the maximum brightness is detected in step S5 ', in step S7, the sound creation unit 7 creates sound data SD according to the creation function f based on the maximum brightness data BDmax.

  As mentioned above, although this invention was demonstrated by the said embodiment, of course, this invention can be variously implemented in the range which does not change the main point. For example, in the above embodiment, the block Bl is set to calculate the average luminance of the region of interest R. However, the block Bl is not set, and all pixels in the region of interest R are targeted. You may perform the calculation which calculates average brightness | luminance.

  Further, although an example of a B-mode image has been described as the ultrasonic image G, the present invention is not limited to this. For example, the echo data processing unit 4 may create color doppler data by performing Doppler processing such as orthogonal detection processing and autocorrelation calculation processing together with B-mode processing. In this case, the image data creation unit 51 creates color Doppler image data based on the color Doppler data together with the B mode image data, and displays an image in which the color Doppler image is superimposed on the B mode image. To display.

  The echo data processing unit 4 may perform B flow (B-flow) processing to create B flow data. In this case, the image data creation unit 51 creates B flow image data based on the B flow data, and causes the display unit 6 to display the B flow image.

  When a color Doppler image or a B flow image is displayed on the display unit 6, a sound corresponding to the luminance of the color Doppler image or the B flow image may be output from the speaker 8.

1 Ultrasonic diagnostic device 7 Sound generator 8 Speaker (sound output unit)
G Ultrasound image R Region of interest

Claims (8)

  An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus comprising: a sound output unit that outputs a sound according to the luminance of a predetermined region in an ultrasonic image.   The ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to claim 1, wherein at least one of a volume and a sound quality of the sound output from the sound output unit varies depending on luminance. Based on the luminance information of the ultrasound image, it has a sound creation unit that creates sound data,
The ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the sound output unit includes a speaker that emits sound based on sound data output from the sound creation unit.   The ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the predetermined region is a region of interest set in a part of the ultrasonic image or the entire ultrasonic image.   The ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the luminance of the ultrasonic image is an average luminance in the region of interest or the entire ultrasonic image.   The ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the luminance of the ultrasonic image is a maximum luminance in the region of interest or in the entire ultrasonic image.   The ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the ultrasonic image is a B-mode image, a color Doppler image, or a B flow image. On the computer,
A control program for an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus, characterized by executing a sound creation function for creating sound data corresponding to the brightness of a predetermined area in an ultrasound image, which is sound data output from a sound output unit.